Awesome Vons trip!

This is the sort of shopping trip where the cashier does a double take at the receipt and I do a happy dance on my way out of the store. :)

Have I mentioned how much I love ecoupons? I think I have. Oh well, I'll tell you again. I LOVE ECOUPONS! If you haven't done your grocery shopping yet this week, go to shortcuts and cellfire and load everything there onto your Vons card. I promise, it is worth it!

Ok, here's what I purchased:

5 pkgs C&W frozen veggies
1 Farmer John breakfast sausage
1 Farmer John bacon
1 strip steak (original price $10)
1 large sirloin roast (original price $22)
1.5 lb. ground beef (original price $7)
7 lbs bananas
1 lb organic baby spinach
1 pkg fresh mushrooms
1 sour cream
1 michael angelo frozen meal
2 Snyders pretzels
1 Goldfish grahams
1 Nature Valley nut clusters
1 Betty Crocker warm delights
2 Quakes
6 Kellogg's Raisin Bran
2 Kellogg's fruit snacks
2 Kellogg's Mini Wheats

For all this, I paid $45.59 out of pocket, but then I received a $10 catalina for use on my next order. Which means that my net cost for the entire purchase is less than the original sticker price of the meat.

We don't usually buy a lot of meat, but today was definitely the day to stock up, and I'm glad I took the time to find what I wanted. Vons is running a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase of Rancher's Reserve beef in their weekly ad. This can be used on clearance meat purchases. I browsed around the clearance section of the meat department, but didn't see anything I wanted. So then I browsed the regular section, and jackpot! Lots of options with "sell by" dates for tomorrow, which hadn't yet been marked down! I picked out the three packages I wanted, and Gabriel at the meat counter happily marked them down for me. The "expiration" date doesn't bother me, as I'll use one tomorrow and freeze the others.

I also love the fact that most of what I bought today is quite healthy. Veggies (even some organic!) and fruit, fresh meat and dairy, cereal - all the things that people tend to think you "can't buy with coupons". Yes you can!! Just as one example: the C&W frozen veggies retail for $3.49 each, but with coupons, ecoupons, and a sale, they came out to only $0.69 each!

Happy couponing!