Extreme Couponing...sort of

Today I made a grocery shopping trip to Vons. I bought $111.45 worth of groceries and only paid $31.47! That is a 72% savings!

And no, I didn't just buy frozen food junk. I bought real, normal food that will get us through the week.

Here's how I did it. Part luck, part timing, part planning.

My grocery store is having a grand reopening, so pretty much everything in the store is on sale right now. Eric went to the store yesterday to pick up just a few things for dinner and ended up winning a $25 gift card! Yay for luck!

I don't think I paid full price for anything. Wait...yes I did. I bought a packet of Lawry's Fajita Seasoning for the full price of $1.39. I also bought Welch's grape jam for Eric for his lunch.

Most everything else was either on sale or on sale with a coupon. I got free eggs, free peanut butter, and free soup. I got Kraft salad dressing for $1, a bag of ravioli for $2, and five Lunchable sandwich kits for $3.

While I don't think TLC's Extreme Couponing tv show will be calling me any time soon, I sure understand the rush and excitement of purchasing so much for so little. I'm not willing to cut 50 coupon inserts out each week, but I am willing to use the coupons in the Sunday paper to save a little money here and there.

I also love the idea of building a stockpile for future use. How cool would it be to know that you always have something on hand and that you never have to pay full price?

Love coupons!