This is the post that I admit that I went grocery shopping nearly every day last week during my Pantry Challenge. Remember the challenge where I was NOT going to shop for stockpiled items, and only spend $100? Well, I stockpiled again, but I had to…and it was SO worth it!
Since I added Super Doubles or triples into “my exclusion clause” for my Pantry  Challenge post (whew), I don’t feel that guilty, but guilty enough that our Pantry Challenge has now been extended, much to my teen boys’ dismay. When a savings opportunity comes along like extreme couponing, I realize it wouldn’t have been fiscally responsible of me NOT to shop.
Does that make sense? An intense couponing week like this is not something I LOVE…actually, it’s hard work, and takes planning to only spend $25/week on groceries. But when your grocery bill goes from $135 down to $12 (which doesn’t include the retail price of the marked down meats or milk), it’s all worth it because this was one of my best grocery trips ever. Being the “Grocery Guru,” that is pretty exciting. 🙂

Even with an “extreme couponing” week, I still did not spend more than $65 with five trips to the store, and that was literally for hundreds of items. And now, I don’t care if I don’t see another coupon for a month – seriously. I always take a long couponing break after triples or doubles.
My camera battery died here, so I couldn’t get a better picture, but about 20 items were already put away.

  • 4 boxes of Special K – total $1 (many national chains are doing this automatic $5 back through the rest of the month, so take advantage of this offer)
  • 2 Lysol double sided wipes – free
  • 1 Coffee mate flavored creamer – free (but I now have six)
  • 3 boxes of guacamole – free (my kids are in heaven)
  • 2 v-8 juices – $0.50/each
  • Organic, marked down milk – $1/gallon
  • 4 Palmero pizzas – $1.50/each (whoot whoot)
  • 2 Blue Bonny ice creams…you don’t even want to know…$0.30 (I’m ducking since my freezer is so full of ice cream)
  • 6 bags of Kraft Cheese – nearly free (another catalina special through out the country)
  • 6 Healthy Choice soups – $0.25
  • This was the deal of the day. There were FOUR boxes (only one is shown) of Perdue precooked chicken. Originally, $4.89, but $4 sticky tag was on it due to it being marked down meat…then I had a 2 $1 coupon, that doubled….you do the math. Money maker, it was.) Anyone could have done that. You didn’t need to have double coupons. It’s about having that eagle eye at the store.
  • 2 Earthgrain 100% multigrain buns – $0.50
  • Dannon yogurt – $0.20/piece

I realize that many of you do not have a store that doubles your coupons,and so you feel like this great of saving can’t apply to you.
The reason I choose this trip, was because most of you could have achieved this same thing by adding on an additional $20. I know that most of you would gladly have payed $32 for this load, right? The Kraft and Special K deals are nation wide. The marked down milk and meat just means a talk with your dairy and meat managers, and the rest was looking at the store flyers and only buying exactly what matched up with my coupons. No, it’s not for the faint of heart, but I was not about to miss 20 boxes of Special K cereal with strawberries for $5.
Do you see why I couldn’t pass this week up – not with five children? Our dinners are still from the Pantry, as you can see, these are speciality items, except for the pizza, which are now gone. 🙂