My Profitable Giant Shopping Trip!

 

 

I broke one of my main couponing rules today- which is to never pay for coupons - in order to take advantage of the fantastic Giant bonus gas points deal on Jones sausage. 

 

In the past I have had bad experiences with ordering coupons - they arrived in the mail after the sale was over or the store was out of stock by the time I had the coupons to use. I would get a raincheck, but by the time the stock came in, my coupons would be expired. Once I realized that I could find multiple free coupons at the recycling center, I lost all interest in buying coupons.

 

This time, however, I took a chance and ordered 21 of the regional coupons for 75 cents off Jones sausage that we did not get in the Washington Post. I paid 7 cents each plus 96 cents postage to Rebecca's Coupons and Forms, which unlike other clipping services, has no minimum order or administrative fees.

 

I was worried the coupons might not arrive in time due to the Monday postal holiday, but they showed up yesterday, so I took them to Giant today, and got the sausages:

 

 

They were on sale 3/$5.00, so the total for 21 was $35.00. My coupons doubled, and took off $31.50, making the total $3.50 plus tax. I paid $2.43 for the coupons, so my actual cost was $6.00 or 28 cents each!

 

But wait, there's more!

I earned 1200 bonus gas points for this transaction, which equates to a fuel savings (for me) of $24.00.

So, the bottom line after all expenses comes to 21 free boxes of sausage and $18.00 worth of free gas!!

 

Also on this trip, I spotted a giant bag of dog food that was clearanced because the bottom had ripped open and been taped up. Last month I paid $9.99 for this same size and brand of dog food when it was on sale. That bag had one scoop left in it.

 

This bag was marked down to $8.64.

 

 

 

I ended up spending $13.14 out of pocket today. It would have been a perfect trip if I had remembered to use the $2.00 Catalina coupon that I got for buying Campbell's Slow Kettle soup earlier this week, when I earned another 400 bonus gas points!