My Coupon Deals for Today

Today I went to Albertsons armed with my list and a bunch of coupons. They were having a deal that if you bought any 10 of a certain list of items, you would get a $10 coupon that you could use like cash on anything you bought on your next visit to Albertsons. So, I bought the following:

2 General Mills Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal 2/$5
1 General Mills Lucky Charms Cereal 2/$5
I had a coupon for $1 off when I bought 3 GM cereals
Plus a double coupon took off 50 cents more.
Total paid for 3 cereals: $6

2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights mixes, 3/$5
I had 2 50 cents off coupons, plus double coupons took off another 50 cents each.
Total paid for 2 Warm Delights: $1.34

1 Pillsbury Crescent Roll, 2/$4
I had a 25 cent coupon, plus a double coupon to take another 25 cents off
Total paid: $1.50

1 Pillsbury Cinnamon Roll, 2/$4
30 cent coupon plus double coupon
Total paid: 1.40

1 Toaster Strudel, 2/$4
35 cent coupon plus double
Total paid: $1.30

2 Cheerios Snack Mix, 2/$4
2 60 cent coupons, plus doubles for 50 cents each additional
Total paid for 2: $2.80

Total paid for all items: $14.34
Then I got the $10 coupon to use on my next visit, so it was like I paid $4.34.

In addition to that, I also bought 2 Romano's Macaroni Grill dinner mixes to try. They were on sale for 2/$7, and I had 2 $1 coupons plus the doubles gave me 50 cents more off each box, so I paid $2 for each box. We tried one tonight, it was pretty good. Duncan ate it even though it had visible tomato and mushroom pieces, and had 3 helpings. He said he "couldn't taste" the mushrooms. LOL He's a vegetable-phobe as well as a fruit-phobe. He stopped eating any fruits when he was a baby and used to eat some vegetables, but has gradually eliminated veggies until the only one he really eats is potatoes.

My other purchase at Albertson's was the Campbells Soup at Hand. They were on sale for 10/$10, so I bought 5. These are a good hot lunch when in a hurry and I lived on these when I worked at Norm Thompson one Christmas. We only got a 15-minute break, so I would spend that stretching my legs and heating up my soup, and then take it back to my station to eat as I worked.

My total at Albertsons was $23.84. I saved $24.29 by using my Albertsons preferred card (to get the sale prices listed above) and an additional $9 using coupons. Total savings percentage was 58%.

I feel pretty good considering that some of the experienced coupon users whose blogs I read to read about the best deals this week, seemed to have felt that the best scenarios for getting the most savings involved getting multiple coupons from ebay or whatever. I just used coupons I'd gotten in one copy of the Sunday paper (a few weeks back) and a few coupons that I printed from the Internet. I was able to print multiple copies of a couple of them and the store accepted them. I am vowing to never buy coupons from anyone or to buy more than 2 or 3 copies of the Sunday paper if there is a really good coupon. I want to use the system, but not abuse it or spend all my time in search of saving a few pennies.