Ukrop’s $1 Coupon Doubler Shopping Trip 2/22/10

I went to the store Monday night with a list of $1 coupons available to see what the shelf price was on many of the items and to find out the fine print details of the coupon doubler in the weekly ad.  I knew this was not a task to take on with two kids in tow so I ran out after dinner with just Natalie.  She doesn’t get to go to the store with me as often because I go while she is at preschool.  She wanted everything she saw, and of course I kept giving her the same series of lines, “Not tonight” , “Maybe another time”, “It isn’t on sale and I don’t have a coupon”  I am not a mom who completely deprives my children – I did let her pick out some fresh fruit from the salad bar.  The girls love watermelon which is not easy to find in February in Virginia so I agreed to some fresh fruit off the salad bar to go with breakfast or lunch  on Tuesday.  (I did have an ulterior motive – I had 4 salads towards the buy 5 get your 6th salad free promo that ends this week and I wanted to make sure I got another free before it ended.)

I noticed when checking some prices that Ukrop’s carries the Johnson & Johnson Buddies Easy-grip Sudzing Bars.  These are bars of soap that are enclosed in a mesh that allow them to suds easier for little hands and not make them as slippery.  They are an everyday price of $0.99.  I was able to get one for free with my $1 off and Johnson & Johnson Baby item from the 1/3 RP.  I had found them at Target in the past for $0.99, but they recently raised their price to over a $1.  (Natalie was excited about getting a new bar of “buddy soap”.)

So – after saying all of that I picked up a few things that were on sale, that we were out of, or that insured I would hit the $15 minimum purchase to use some of my $1 coupon doublers.  (I used three $1 coupon doublers out of the maximum of four during the week. The pressure is on to make the last one count!)

Here is my breakdown:

Uncle Ben’s Whole Grain Rice = FREE*

Easy-grip Sudzing Bar = FREE

(2) Halls Fruit Breezers = FREE*

Food Club Frozen Blueberries = $2.29

Organic 1% Milk (half gallon) = $3.29

Ground Round (1.03 lb) = $2.15 (Monday Daily Special)

Ukrop’s All Natural Boneless Chicken Breast Tenders (1 lb) = $2.01*

Salad Bar Purchase (1.14 lb) = $6.83 (Fruit is really heavy!)

Shelf Price (before sales, coupons, and tax) = $30.38

Final Price (after sales, and coupons, before tax) = $16.53

Total Savings = $13.85 (46%)

*I used a $1 coupon doubler in addition to a manufacturer coupon for that item. 

The chicken tenders were marked down 33% so I was able to make it a really good deal by combining the $1 off coupon I had for Ukrop’s All-Natural Chicken with the $1 Coupon Doubler – that saved me a total of $3.98 (or 66%).

I can’t believe I paid more for fruit off the salad bar than I did for a pound of ground beef and a pound of chicken tenders!  At least I will sort of get my money back with my free one pound salad bar purchase later in the week.