Shopping trip? SUCCESS!

Saturday night I ventured out, alone, for the weekly grocery shopping adventure. I say adventure as that is exactly what it has been since I started couponing while also doing the Dave Ramsey budgeting system... Both have been a success. One slightly more so than the other though. :-)

This is the first time I went shopping, alone! Charles was working so I had no choice. :-( I had my coupons in hand. My grocery list. Calculator. And pencil. Ready to shop!

I even handed over two coupons to a lady and told her to use them together {it was a BOGO Free along with another coupon for $1.00 off the same item so even less was paid out of pocket!} and went along my way... :-) I love this new found knowledge I have!!! Gotta say, this blog has helped me out TREMEDOUSLY!!!!!

All in all, I think I did pretty darn good! I purchased 58 items total. My grand total, before tax, came to $197.58!

Then I handed over the lady my stack of coupons {do you usually give coupons as you go or wait until the end to bombard the cashier??}, and it began...

13 coupons later, my new grand total is $168.24!!! I was pretty stinking proud of myself! :-)

And get this! I was PAID to purchase a few items as well!!!! Like, I had two $5.00 off any E.P.T. item and they were only $3.47 so the difference was taken off other items! This happened with a few coupons... I even spent $25 on a birthday gift for one of my nanny boys {they LOVE The Wonder Pets and so it's Ming-Ming!}.

What is not included in this grand total but is included in the first photo are two ClearBlue Ovulation 7pack + 1 Digital Home Pregnancy Test that I purchased for $7.24/each at Walgreens! On my receipt, it says I saved $43.50 by purchasing only these two items!! Anyone that's ever purchased these ClearBlue products knows how expensive these things are! I was so tempted to buy out the stock {only five} but figured Charles wouldn't be too pleased... Instead, I rationalized. :-) Ready???

I figured I would use one 7-pack of Ovulation Predictor's for the cycle in November and the second 7-pack in December and January we'll hopefully be back up in treatments!!! :-)

Below are my photos of a few items purchased... {Excuse the kitchen table covered in photos I'm organizing to scrapbook}

I found this product, I'm SOOO excited about it!!! It's a Dark Chocolate spread! No added sugar thus South Beach Friendly! I plan to use some on the Pineapple I purchased as a little dessert! YUM YUM! Oh, and we LOVE Jiff's Natural Peanut Butter! No added sugar...No need to stir...No need to refridgerate...No mess! The skippy "natural" has added sugar just FYI.

No we do not have a cat! These two cat treats were thrown in my cart only becuase they were FREE!!!! I'll either A) Use them as dog treats {I'm so cheap!} or B) Treat the neighborhood kitties we have roaming around {although Charles doesn't think it's a good idea...}!

No, the beer was not purchased on this trip... Nor has it been touched since starting the South Beach Diet... This trip included celery, peppers, grapes, pineapple, tomatoes...... I forget what else.

So, what do you think???? Think I did a decent job by myself grocery shopping??? :-)