Tuesday, March 31, 2009

My triple coupon bonanza 


Triple coupon savings
Originally uploaded by MCuthbert
This is my receipt from my trip to Bruno's during their triple coupon promotion, honoring all coupons up to 55¢. Look closely. The sub-total before coupons was $200.70, and the sub-total after coupons was $98.21. That's more than $100 in savings!

When I found out about the triple coupon deal, I sat at home and pulled out all the coupons up to 55¢ I could find in my organizer. Luckily, I hadn't yet gone through the Sunday coupon inserts from the last two weeks, so I had plenty to choose from. I even pulled out things that I normally wouldn't buy, because with discounts as much as $1.65, I knew I might be able to get some products for free (or close to it).

I set out for Bruno's Monday morning at 6 a.m. while the girls were still asleep. With the pile of coupons I had, I knew my shopping would take a while, and they wouldn't have enjoyed the experience. Before starting though, I went inside and bought a Sunday paper still left over from the day before, then returned to my car to clip even more coupons.

My trek through the store took me about 2½ hours because I wanted to be sure that I wasn't simply using a coupon for its own sake, so I'd figure out the math in my head (sometimes having to account for differences in product sizes). If the generic brand was still cheaper (as it often was), I'd skip it.

In the end, I used a coupon for every single item I purchased. That amounted to 57 coupons for 78 items (because some were for "save x amount off of two"). The cashier was impressed. And to top it off, I brought my own bags with me to the store.

Here's a picture of my full receipt, though you can't make out what's on it.