April 6th, 2008 by john 
in Categories: 
I wanted to take a few minutes and share my savings experiences today. I guess you could say this is an update to the post 5 Tips To Cut Your Grocery Bill Today!. I went shopping this afternoon, starting at Walgreens. I stopped by there to pick up some Alli. For those who don’t know, Alli is a weight lose product. I had three coupons totaling $25.00. So stop #1 netted a cool 42% savings! Not bad, right?
Now, on to the bigger and better savings extravaganza! I spent 45 minutes in Kroger and purchased 57 items totaling $145.28. Almost all items were on sale. Using a combination of electronic coupons, manufacturers coupons and store coupons, I saved $79.98. This brought my “out the door” cost to $65.30. That represents a 55% savings, not taking into account the sale prices.
I spent forty-five minutes reading the sale ads and clipping the coupons, 15 minutes driving, 15 minutes in Walgreens and 45 minutes in Kroger. Check the receipts! That’s two hours. I saved $104.98 OR $52.49 per hour for my time. Now you’re talking! Additionally, I used my Chase Mastercard, which gives me a cool 5% cash back at grocery AND drug stores.
One key ingredient that makes this all possible is my local paper. I signed up on a deal, imagine that. At the time the paper was running an unbelievable offer of $68.00 per year for the entire weekly paper, including Sunday! That rate will remain in effect as long as I auto renew my subscription every year. This is the source of many of my coupons and is essential to my savings plan. I highly recommend subscribing to your local newspaper.
As I have previously stated, I get and expect these kinds of savings every time I go shopping. AND so should you! It will take some getting used to and it will take some of your precious time. But I feel the payoff is worth it! How about you? Share you savings experiences, we would love to hear it!
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Hi John,
That is awesome savings. I wish my husband would take after you. He is just the opposite. I’m sure your wife & family is proud of you. You have extra money to do other things with, by the savings you saved at the grocery stores. Very smart thinking & keep it up. Thanks for sharing this with us.
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Robin – Thanks, no problem! I love sharing info on savings. I wish more people would take an interest in pursuing these kinds of opportunities. I see so many people leaving a lot of money on the table; money that could be put to much better uses! I guess I’ll keep blogging until everyone’s a coupon clipping, ad watching, deal hunting, money saving fool like me! =)
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