Grocery Shopping With A Full Cup
This week I conducted an experiment. How many groceries could I get with a $50 American Express Gift Card (provided by the folks at A Full Cup), using tips, coupons, and deals I found at A Full Cup. Watch the video to find out how I did.
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What do you think? How did I do?
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By Lynnae McCoy, on Apr 23, 2009
I'm Lynnae, wife of one and stay-at-home mom of two. I'm committed to getting out of debt by being frugal with my choices in life.
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About $80 worth of stuff for $52? That’s a really good job, Lynnae!
No produce? No bread? No dairy? Would’t go over well in my house, but you did get some good deals on the other things!
I agree. My husband clips coupons just because they look like a good deal but we don’t buy processed foods and buy a great deal of generics so rarely can I make use of the coupons. Sounds like a fun experiment, though. I always enjoy trying to see what kind of good deal I can get.
I’ve been using The Grocery Game for a few weeks now and also struggle to use most of the coupons that are available. At the same time, my family has been trying to go more ‘green’ and healthy. So no more Little Debbies, Oreos or individually packed snacks. Instead we buy more bulk flours and sugars to make healthier homemade alternatives. And most of my grocery shopping has become fresh produce, dairy, bread and meat. I tend to buy more store brands at a lower price than with coupons.
So it depends on your goal. If you are willing to do a little more manual work and buy bulk and bake more, you can really reduce your waste AND eat healthier AND save money all at the same time. This year we are looking forward to having a bigger garden to try to save even more.
Lynnae…it’d be fun to try your exercise again with a menu for the week in mind too!
That’s a lot of processed foods which we don’t eat. Too bad coupons don’t work for milk or cheese.
I agree with the above commenters these are good savings if you normally buy this stuff but it highlights the problems many of us have with coupons- I’ve never bought any of the type of items you show.
Although I do like to use coupons for shampoos and toothpastes, I’ve never found coupons for my regular food shop.
Lynae, You did a fabulous job! It shows there are coupons out there and the amount of money you can save by putting a little effort forth and using them!
Great job, Lynnae! Is Fred Myers like Kroger? Our Kroger doubles, but on the receipt at the bottom it also shows my shopper card savings. I always assumed that this was the sale price savings. Maybe?
When I first started couponing, I clipped everything and tried to buy everything I could. I ended up spending more money. Then, I got a clue.
I clip only the coupons that I’m sure we’re going to use (pasta and pasta sauces are biggies). I don’t clip the sweets coupons anymore as I’m trying to add more fruits and veggies into the mix.
And speaking of fruits and veggies, I find that while they are slightly more expensive, if I buy them on sale (I really try to stay under the $1 – $1.25 mark), I can save money.
I still say great job. Isn’t saving money such a rush!
This definitely wasn’t a normal shopping trip for me, as you would have seen much more in the way of produce and non-processed foods. But since the experiment was to see how much food I could buy for $50, there ended up being a lot of processed food, yes. We’ll eat it all, but it will be supplemented with a great deal of healthier stuff.
I agree that coupon shopping can be difficult, if you don’t eat processed foods at all. Coupons for healthier selections are starting to pop up, but still not often.
Bandon Cheese is owned by Tillamook Cheese – I’m ok with that :)
The time to find coupons for “ingredients” versus processed foods (so, things such as flour, butter, etc.) is November and December.
But this does illustrate why I don’t shop with coupons or play the grocery games and whatnot… I found I saved a lot of money by not going through the ad paper, not shopping with coupons, not even shopping with much of a list (by which I mean I’ll have a list of must-gets, but sticking to it is not essential) and just getting what I need. If I see a good deal on something I’m buying anyway, I’ll stock up, or there are a few things I only buy on sale–salsa is a good example, since I am too busy right now to make my own.
I think you did extremely well.
Anytime I hit 25% savings- I am pleased. I sometimes hit a third or more.
As for saving on the basics such as milk, bread, eggs, and cheese, I sometimes get those x dollars off your next purchase over x dollars. I go $1 over and get a sizeable savings on all of the basic staples . . .
Ditch the soda habit! I have . . .
I am glad to see that you saved so much money. It is disappointing to see so many processed foods from the store. If there is time in your schedule you can save even more money buy purchasing more basics and cook most of these meals from scratch. Make your own pasta sauce, cut down on the boxed cereals and cook steel-cut oats are just a few things to do.
I hope to see more coupons for natural products in the future. We will all be healthier for it in our bodies and pocketbooks.
Keep up the great work!
I think that you did a decent job, however, I agree with most that there are some of those things that really weren’t worth getting. Was it just because you had a coupon for it? If you had not bought some of those, you could have saved on the amount you did pay to put towards some produce. But I guess it was possible that you wanted to only buy items that you had coupons for?
Either way, not bad. But there’s always room for improvement.
Are you going to continue couponing like this?
Lynnae: I think you are adorable and so real and sincere on your video. You did a great jo of shopping. Ilike how you used reuseable bags too, no plastic. Cute cat.
Ditto the first comment link’s opinion:
“Why Catalogue Specials Cost You More | frugalandthriving.com.au”.
Sure using coupons for name brand items we use is smart.
But using coupons for over-processed/packaged items is unhealthy and wastes time, money and earth resources.
Coupon systems/games are for entertainment not frugality.