Grocery Store Savings Madness

Things got a little crazy around here Friday night as I tried to figure out my grocery shopping strategy for the week. In my opinion, it was worth it. Kroger has a "10 Item Mega Event" going on right now, which means you can save $5 if you buy 10 participating items. Normally when they have these sales, the participating items aren't things we would normally buy, so we wouldn't really be saving money. This sale had so many great buys that I probably would have bought 30 items if it weren't for our lack of cabinet space. I ended up limiting myself to 20 (although I'm tempted to go back for 10 more and start a stockpile in my dresser).

These were my picks:

2 boxes of Quaker cereal, 3 packages of pasta, 8 cans of Campbell's Chunky/Select Harvest soup, 1 container of yogurt, 1 can of cranberry sauce, 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, 1 can of peaches, and 2 packages of frozen vegetables

Had I bought these 20 items at regular price, without using my Kroger Plus Card, it would have cost $42.16. With the plus card and sale prices, the total comes down to $29.86. Since I bought 20 participating items, I also saved $5 for every 10, which brings the total to $19.86. After using coupons for most of these items, my final cost was $9.11!

These weren't the only groceries I bought this week. All the food I bought totaled $47.96, which is more than I've spent in a while, but I also got about twice as much as I normally would. Next week's trip should be very light if we use what we have wisely.

Ironically, while I was out shopping Nathan was reading for his accounting class about what happens to coupons after they leave the store. He said coupons are a "pain in the butt" from an accounting standpoint. I'm glad I'm helping keep accountants employed. :)

What's your best money saving success story?