Couponing Attempts Chapter 1

The third week I purchase the Sunday paper, and I am ready to shop as I really need some things that are on sale.  I get my act together, and work the plan.  I figure out which store is having a sale on the item for which I have the special Sunday coupon money off, and I write that down.  I see if there are other online coupons that I can print off.  Let me tell you there are a lot of online clicks that get you stuck in places you DO NOT want to be.  They are selling coupons to:
Computers
Plumbing
Restaurants
Services(Car wash, massages, theater, etc.)

I click and I am in a universe of coupons that have nothing to do with groceries.  Three hours later I am back to where I want to be, and have a short list of items I need.
Weslee says, "Get catsup, Gatorade, Tyson barbecue chicken wings, and milk.  Oh, and we are out of cereal, get Reese's Puffs."  I am sure I do not have coupons for all of that.  I spend another several hours researching, that if I buy four specific cereals, Puffs included, I get free milk at Kroger's, so I am pretty pleased with myself.  I have figured out how to save a bit of money.
Tide, I have a $2 coupon, it is on sale, and I buy it for 8.99 minus $2.80 savings=$4.19
Imitation crab is 2 for $4, save .98
Cheerios is 2 for 5, save $1.09
Puffs are 2 for 5, save .94
Coupon for Ritz for .75, 2 for $4, save 1.90=cost 3.25 for 2 boxes
$1 off 3 Progressive soups, each $1.63- cost $3.89
$2. off vitamins, 2 for 1 sale, regular price each $19.99= total pd 17.99 for two bottles
I had coupons for peanut butter, hot dogs, cereal, ice cream, and also bought catsup, Tyson chicken, and  Gatorade without coupons.  I ended up with a bill of $170, which rang down with coupons to $105.

The tide and the vitamins were definitely worth the trip, whereas some of the other deals were marginal.  When I got home, checked the cash register receipt, the milk, $2.99 was on my bill.  Some how I did not purchase the right 4 cereals to get the "free" milk, or I did not do something right.  I also saw that the Turkey did not ring up as the Internet had said, .49 cents a pound special, but at .79 special- already a $10 savings, but not as good as the Internet had promised. Again, I am not sure what I need to do differently to get the additional savings.
Total time preparing to shop- 6 hours.  In store, over one hour(close to 2).  Newspapers bought, 3x2=$6.  Savings about $60.  Extra items- yes, this is where the benefit comes- I have extra cereal, lots of extra vitamins, and if I think ahead, I will be saving a lot in the future.  I have a trip planned to CVS to get some 2 for 1 glucosamine and paper products on sale today.  My time- 6 hours, if I pay myself that would be $10 and hour... so for the first coupon attempt I would say, NOT SO BAD!
And if anyone has some more of those Tide coupons from the Sunday insert, send them to me right away...I would like to buy a few more of those Tide to buy ahead!

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