Cheese, meat, and more cheese – that is the bulk of what I picked up today. Natalie wanted to help me arrange what we bought for the picture and also asked if she and Megan could be in the picture. I told them they just had to smile – which led Natalie to ask, “Can we hold up a package of cheese and say cheese at the same time?”
In case you are trying to count – I got a total of 22 blocks of Cracker Barrel Cheese!
I was worried that my $7 off $20 wouldn’t work if I did them all in one transaction so I had a very patient cashier who let me set everything up and pay for each of my $20 scenarios separately. I had a total of 5 transactions. I am entering the information from my receipt so I am going to list each transaction separately.
Transaction #1:
- Old El Paso Seasoning Mix (I found a peelie coupon making it free when I bought 2 Old El Paso Products)
- (2) Old El Paso Shells
- Old El Paso Refried Beans
- (4) Diet Coke with Lime (For Steve to take to work)
- Jif Peanut Butter
- Vlasic Dill Pickle Slices
- Diet Snapple Peach Tea
- Rolls (Managers Special)
- 3.25lb - Golden Delicious Apples
- Earthbound Organic Romaine
- Dole Romaine (Manager Special)
- 4.02lb - Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (I found a rain check I had forgotten about when I was going through my coupons that I redeemed making it $1.49/lb)
- 9lb – 85/15 Ground Beef (Manager Special for $1.50/lb)
- (4) Mrs. T’s Pierogoes
- (10) Kraft Shredded Cheese
- Reddi Wip
- Milk 1 gallon (redeemed my free coupon from the cereal deal two weeks ago)
- Chocolate Milk 1/2 gallon (combined my free milk coupon and the Pet coupon in the 1/9 SmartSource Insert)
Transaction#2:
- Kraft Singles
- (4) Cracker Barrel Cheese
- (6) Breakstone’s Sour Cream
Transaction #3:
- (8) Cracker Barrel Cheese
Transaction #4:
- (5) Kraft Cheese Cubes
- (4) Cracker Barrel Cheese
Transaction #5:
- (2) Maxwell House International Coffee
- (6) Cracker Barrel Cheese
Shelf Total (before sales, coupons, or tax): $270.36
Final Price (after sales, coupons, bag credits, before tax): $90
Total Savings: $180.36 (67%)
I saved $125.23 with my MARTIN’S BONUSCARD (that includes the $7 off with each of the $7 off $20 transactions). I saved $39.09 with coupons and an additional $2.40 with coupons that doubled. I saved $13.44 by finding the ground beef with a Manager Special sticker. (Manager specials ring up at the reduced price and don’t show the original price on your receipt or in your savings report at the bottom of your receipt.) I also saved $0.20 by remembering to bring my own bags to the store.
How did you do this week? Feel free to share. :)
~Ann
9 comments:
That was a great trip!
I almost missed this deal, but thanks to seeing your post about it the other day, I made sure I included a stop at Martin's in a marathon shopping trip I made today!
Like you, I was concerned I might not get all my instant savings, plus I wanted all 3 of my Chi Chi's coupons to double, so needed to run separate transactions (my Martin's only doubles the first coupon). So I went to the self-checkout and did for transactions.
Transaction #1
4 boxes of Ritz crackers
4 boxes of Ritz Munchables
$26.96 before savings. I had $1/2 coupons for the crackers.
Final cost was $9.00
Transaction #2
5 Kraft Grated Parmesan
Chi Chi's Salsa
A1 Steak Sauce
$$31.23 before savings. I had coupons for the salsa and the steak sauce.
Final cost $12.94
Transaction #3
1 Kraft Grated Parmesan
1 Chi Chi's Salsa
3 boxes Jello
2 bags Ritz Chips
2 pkgs Kraft Singles (2%)
Schick Hyro Razor
Giant Seedless Rye Bread (on "stale" shelf for $1.05)
2 pkgs Giant Thin Sandwich Rolls (on "stale" shelf for $1.14 each)
I had coupons for the salsa, the Jello, the Ritz, the cheese and a free coupon that Martin's sent in the mail for the razor (a $5.99 value). Total before savings $52.60
Total after savings $16.19
Transaction #4
1 Chi Chi's salsa
8 Cracker Barrel Cheese
Had coupons for the cheese and the salsa. Total before savings $40.01
Total after savings $9.50
So a total of $150 worth of groceries for only $47.63 out of pocket. Love those kinds of numbers!!
Great job Brenda! You had about a 67% savings! I am so glad that you saw my previous post and were able to squeeze in a trip. I may have to come over to your house for some crackers to go with all of my cheese. :)
I like that you call it the "stale shelf" for the marked down bread. I may start calling it that.
I've been following your blog for a couple months. It's hard to find anyone that gives alerts on Martin's! Was really glad when I found your blog.
LOL about the crackers and cheese! I have four kids ages almost 4 to 20, so crackers can go very fast in my house. It helps that my stockpile is kept in the basement, so it's not so easy for them to invade it, but still...
I think I got the name "stale shelf" from when my husband worked as a baker for Albertsons Supermarket in Colorado (over 20 years ago). He had to "stale" things every day, so I've just come to call that shelf the "stale shelf". We're trying to eat more whole grains and I'm really pleased to find a lot of whole wheat sandwich rolls, bread and even english muffins there.
"Brenda said...plus I wanted all 3 of my Chi Chi's coupons to double"
You probably already knew this, but... keep an eye on the coupon barcode numbers. Sometimes the coupon appears to be the same, but the code is different, so both coupons WILL double in the same transaction. This week I used 2 chi-chi coupons with identical expiration dates, but different codes and they both doubled.
We just got a Giant Eagle very close to Martin's that doubles up to 12 like coupons in 1 transaction! I'm hopeful that my Martins will feel some pressure from them and change their coupon policy to compete with GE.
Thanks for the tip, Jessica!
I got a call from someone at Martin's corporate this morning because I'd complained via email about a couple couponing issues at Martin's--one being the doubling issue (when the other big grocer in our area--namely Giant Eagle (which we also just had them move into our town just last October)--doubles ALL the coupons, no matter how many I have. The other was that a manufacturer's coupon with a CVS logo was refused.
Anyway, she did say to me that Martin's is in the process of "re-examining" their coupon policy because they are buying/merging (I forget what wording she used) another store that has a different (implication seemed to equal, more generous) coupon policy. She indicated it'll still be several months before any changes take place--IF they take place.
She was very nice about it. And she was going to look further into the other issue, as she agreed with me that it didn't matter about a coupon having a store logo on it if it was also labeled a manufacturer's coupon (including the bar code starting with a 5).
So...perhaps there is hope yet for Martin's!
What do you do with all that cheese? Does it freeze well?
Do you freeze sour cream?
Brenda - Thanks for sharing what you found out from corporate. I also received a call from them last week after I had sent them an e-mail asking for clarification of their IP policy. I have seen other bloggers suggest that you use a B1G1F IP - according to the policy it appeared that wouldn't work. Corporate called me to tell me that I was correct if it is an IP and has the word "free" on it they won't accept it.
Anonymous - I make sure to check the dates of the cheese and put it my cheese drawer by expiration dates. Some of the stuff I bought had a date of July 2011. My girls don't always drink milk, but they will eat cheese so I will use alot of that for cheese slices for snacks for them, to make mac & cheese, or just to shred and use for tacos, salads, or add to things like scrambled eggs. I do freeze it if it gets close to the expiration date.I have not frozen sour cream, but I have found that if I don't open it and keep it refrigerated it will be ok for about 2 months after the best by date (that is as long as I have kept it). I use it in baking and again with things like tacos, and baked potatoes. I also like to keep it on hand to make up dip if I need to take a veggie tray somewhere. I figure what can really go bad - it is already "sour" cream. :)
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