Weekend Shopping from the Ridiculous to the Sublime

This weekend we had to drive down to Milwaukee for a special errand. It was an opportunity to hit stores we don’t usually shop. This time we went to Whole Foods (wanted to use the $5/25 coupon), CVS (free candy and toothbrushes, how ironic!) and Costco. We received in the mail a coupon booklet from Costco and we wanted to use one of the coupons to get oil for the car since my husband changes the oil in our cars himself.

Our first stop was Whole Foods. I was very excited to go to this store and figured it would take no time for me to add $25 worth of items to my cart so that I could use the coupon. Also, at the entrance I found lots of copies of the Mambo Sprouts booklets and figured I would find great use for those coupons right away. Twenty five minutes later and after walking down all of the aisles my cart is empty. First I figured that maybe I could find my son’s cereal (Earth’s best) there. Regular price $2.99, I pay $1.78 at Walmart or Target for the same. Then I noticed that ZClif bars are on sale for 49 cents and there’s a $0.50/1 coupon in the Mambo Sprouts booklet. Yay! free bars!! Sure, if you can find them. I spent another 10 minutes looking for them and was never able to find them. So we left the store empty handed.

Then we headed to Costco. Besides the oil we also needed ketchup, fruit preserves, Equal and I found a cheap pineapple. We left the store with $101 worth of items for $82 thanks to the oil coupon. My husband is finally noticing that our trips are so infrequent that it may be time to drop our membership and save the $50 membership fee.

Redemption awaited us at CVS. My initial intention was to roll my extra care bucks. But once there I noticed that I had more ECBs that expired on the 21st. Even though this store takes expired ECBs the last time I was at CVS was 4 weeks ago, so I decided to do the diaper deal. I left the store with two packs of diapers, two tubs of wipes, 4 packs of toothbrushes, one toothpaste, two bags of candy, one flashlight and one bib for $3. Now my extra care bucks don’t expire for another 30 days.

I know I am preaching to the choir here, but I am so happy I use coupons. I am able to save my money with little effort. Sure, couponing takes time but not as much as non-couponers think and I have been able to save so much money. Now, if only all of my shopping could be similar to CVS shopping that would be huge!