Realistic Couponing

  My daughter, posing with all our groceries on January 16th, 2012

Sometimes people get so caught up in "Extreme" couponing that they become disappointed with "normal" couponing. Normally, a person can expect to save around 50% on their groceries if they combine store sales and promos with coupons. That is a reasonable expectation and is nothing to be ashamed of! If you budgeted $6000 a year for your groceries and only spent $3000, that would certainly be an accomplishment!


In this post, I want to share a realistic couponing photo with you. I felt that maybe my website photo gallery was part of the problem, since I show some of my best trips. My photo gallery has pictures of extraordinary trips that I've done, perhaps during Super Doubles or Triples Week or maybe I just caught a crazy sale or promo. But since trips like what you see in my photo gallery don't come around all the time, I thought I should include a photo from a normal shopping week. This was done during a regular week at Harris Teeter. I bought on sale, as usual, and applied coupons to most of my items.


How much do you think I spent? Call in to the radio show at 332-6390 between 10-11 a.m. to take a guess and win!

UPDATE- I paid $42.53 for everything and that actually includes over $2 in tax!

Pictured: 2 Boxes of Hefty Trash Bags (45 count), 2 Coffemate Creamers, Stayfree Maxis, 3 Boxes of Snackwells 100 calorie snacks (Yogurt Pretzels and Caramel Popcorn), 2 Colgate Cavity Protection Toothpastes, 2 Colgate Toothbrushes, 4 Bananas, 4 Packs of Ortega Taco Seasoning, 1 Harris Teeter Brand Applesauce, 4-pack of Activia Yogurt Black Cherry, Sara Lee Iron Kids Bread, 2 Smart Balance Peanut Butter jars, 2 Blocks of Kraft Cheese, 4 Boxes of Kelloggs Crunchy Nut Cereal, 2 Big Palmolive Soft Hands Dish Detergent, 8 Big Cans of Pillsbury Biscuits, 2 packs of StarKist Tuna Salad, 2 64-ounce Old Orchard Organic Apple Juice (Total of 42 items)