This shopping trip from reader Sue and her daughter needed nothing from me. The email was perfect as is. So, here what Sue had to say about her trip to Pathmark and Stop & Shop as well as her donation.
I am new to this coupon game, but am feeling very pleased with myself for a shopping trip I made yesterday with my 19-year-old daughter. Rutgers is starting a 9-week crusade to raise food for the food bank – (Rutgers Against Hunger) – and this week’s request is for breakfast items. Rutgers employees also have access to a separate coupon database which pretty much duplicates Coupons.com, so I got very busy with my computer, my husband’s computer, and my office computer and printed out a whole lot of General Mills coupons. The coupon novice factor bit me on a couple of counts in my first trip, but I still did pretty well.
::Pathmark
Pathmark (Avast ye scurvy swabs, prepare to be boarded!) made the error of (1) putting a lot of Big G cereals on sale for $1.50 a box AND (2) giving $8 back on a $30 purchase. I went in with 20 coupons, 12 at 75 cents and 8 at 55 cents. Turned out Cinnamon Burst Cheerios and Kix were not on the list, though, so I used four $1/2 coupons instead of those (sob!) eight 75-centers. Also, Pathmark only doubled 2 of each set of 4 identical coupons.
Bought:
2 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch ($1.50 each)
4 boxes Rice Chex ($1.50 each)
2 boxes Trix ($1.50 each)
12 boxes Cheerios ($1.50 each)
Coupons used:
(2) 55 cents off Cinnamon Toast Crunch (both doubled)
(4) 75 cents off Chex (two doubled)
(2) 55 cents off Trix (both doubled)
(4) 55 cents off Cheerios (two doubled)
(4) $1/2 Cheerios
Daughter stood at other end of checkout feeding the cashier an endless stream of our little canvas bags that hold 2-3 boxes of cereal apiece, so it took 8 of them to hold all the cereal, at 2 cents apiece (cheapskates – most places give you 5 cents!) for another 16 cents off.
Paid $12.14 oop and got $8 Catalina for next purchase.
Immediately went back and got a nice package of catfish for dinner at $8.08; used my own bag (2 cents) and the $8 Catalina and paid 6 cents for the fish. Cashier was visibly distressed.
My receipt claims I saved $64.50, and that was without the $8 Catalina.
::Stop & Shop
Onward! To Stop & Shop (Prepare to be boarded!), which has a sale of $2.50/box on Big G cereals with a $7 Catalina back. I crossed my fingers that Cinnamon Burst Cheerios would be in the deal, having read that Stop & Shop will double up to FOUR identical coupons.
Bought:
4 boxes Cinnamon Burst Cheerios ($2.50 each) Yay! It was in the deal!
4 boxes Cheerios ($2.50 each)
Coupons used:
(4) 75 cents off Cinnamon Burst Cheerios (all doubled)
(4) 55 cents off Cheerios (all doubled)
Nice cashier gave me credit for 8 reusable bags (40 cents)
Paid $9.20 oop and got $7 Catalina for next purchase AND (I was not expecting this!) Two Catalinas for a free gallon of milk up to $4.50. Last time I used those, it gave me $4.50 off for each – actually took the money off more expensive things, not the milk, which was under $4.00…So I figure I got as much as $16 back!
Here’s the swag we’re sending to Rutgers this week…And by my calculations, I made $2.79 on this:
Great job Sue and what a great donation you were able to make!
Don’t forget to check out all the Pathmark Deals and the Stop & Shop deals for this week.
If you have a shopping trip you want to share, find out how to enter it into the $100 Store Gift Card Giveaway.