E-coupons at Kroger

My husband and I shop once a week at our local Kroger, We used to shop on Tuesdays because that was Senior Citizen Day, but Kroger recently did away with the 5% discount for shoppers over 55. So, we have to be creative in how we save.

Fortunately we can still save a bit by using e-coupons, which I download from the Kroger website a day or two before we shop. I remember the days of cutting and sorting grocery coupons (and I confess I still do it on rare occasions), but downloading e-coupons from Kroger.com onto my Kroger card is much easier and more efficient. Notice how many e-coupons I used on the receipts below: 

Also notice on the receipts above that if I fill out an online survey about my shopping experience, I can have 50 extra gas points added to my card. Each dollar we spend at Kroger earns us a gas point, and we usually accumulate a thousand a month,. That really helps at the gas pump (each 100 points=10¢ off per gallon).

But back to e-coupons: My husband and I shop together. Since I have to use a handicapped buggy and he pushes a regular cart, it’s easier if we split up. So, I print out two lists of e-coupons—one for each of us.  I use a highlighter to mark things on my husband’s list that he might like, and I mark things on mine that I want to get.  We save time by going our separate ways and meeting at the checkout.

Another way to save money—besides using e-coupons—is to be aware of ways grocery stores try to get shoppers to spend more. Find out how at this link:
 http://www.healthyway.com/content/creepy-ways-that-grocery-stores-are-designed-to-rob-us-blind?

~

May Savings

On the last day of May, we wanted to up our Kroger gas points to 1,000. We'd let our points accumulate so we could get a dollar off a gallon. Gas prices have been so high, that we had cut back on our driving. But now that prices have dropped, we decided to fill up again. We only needed to spend another $200 at Kroger today to make our 1,000 points, so we knew we'd do it.

I had a lot of coupons to use. First I downloaded some onto my card from www.kroger.com and printed out the list:

I'd already clipped some coupons from the newspaper and filed them. Plus I had a bunch of coupons that Kroger had mailed me, including two "checks" for $15 each.

At the Rocky Mount Kroger, I couponed another $25.39 off my total. Plus, I'd used my card to get some discounts ("Kroger Plus Savings") of $74.90.  Then there was the senior citizen discount of $12.83. 

My total grocery bill came to 222.88. We ran out of our resusable bags and had to get two paper bags. It took two large and one small shopping card to get the groceries to the parking lot, where they filled the back of the old PT (which holds more with the back seats removed):

After we'd  unloaded the groceries and had lunch, we took my old truck and a bunch of gas cans and headed for the Westlake Kroger, where gas was a few cents cheaper than the one in Rocky Mount. We were able to get 51.889 gallons (at $2.409 a gallon) before the pump stopped. Total $125. That'll keep the lawn mowers and the truck going for a while.

On the way home, we stopped at Goodwill, where I found some three Pfaltzgraff dinner plates in my pattern (either Blue Sky or Denim—they're similar), four salad plates, and three saucers for 49¢ a piece, a picture frame that looks like it's made of money, a interesting-looking tote bag, and a flower pot. 

I spent a total of $9.54 at Goodwill. 

I'm proud to be a cheapskate.

~

Coupons, Cats, and Sony

Today was one of my better shopping days at Kroger—much better than last week. I had some really good coupons—including one for $24 off my shopping order that came in today's mail. Good thing we waited for the mail before we went to town.

With coupons I'd downloaded onto my Kroger card, a printout of current specials (including $5 off if I bought 10 particular items),  coupons I clipped from yesterday's Sunday's newspaper, and coupons Kroger mailed to me, I bought over well $200 worth of groceries for $152.83.

After we returned home, put away our groceries, and lunched on barbeque chicken (I had a dollar off coupon for the chicken), we went to the feed store in Moneta to get some baled shavings and some horse feed. Instead of taking the truck, which uses too much gas, we took the old PT Cruiser with the back seats removed.  There was more than enough room for four bales of pine shavings and two 50-lb bags of horse feed.

Since we passed through Westlake on our way to Moneta, we stopped at the Discovery Shop, where I found a couple of cat-themed decorative items. I paid a whopping $3 for the patchwork cat, but the little wooden basket had been marked down to $1.50.

Of course both items received a cat scan from Chloe.

Here's the back view of both Chloe and the patchwork cat (which nicely matches the color of the cabinet I recently painted).

My husband got lucky at the Discovery Shop. He bought a Sony headphone AM-FM sports radio for $4. He'll wear it when he mows the lawn. 

Later he checked the price of the Sony radio online. Sony no longer makes that model, but he found several available from Amazon.com. 

If the Amazon price is right, I guess he got a good deal.

~