Last week was my first experience with “triples” since I started couponing. It was quite an experience, and I learned a lot by the time it was all over with. And not only did I learn a lot, but I saved a LOT! My final tally was $386.66 worth of groceries for $130.60. That totals out to a savings of 67%.
Some of the items I got included:
- Betty Crocker fruit snacks for 80¢ a box
- 32 oz jars of Welch’s Concord Grape Jelly for FREE (and I got 4 of them!)
- 6 oz cups of Dannon yogurt for 15¢ each
- Colgate Total for 25¢
- GUM toothbrushes for FREE
- Jell-O for 14¢ a box
- Bounty paper towels for 64¢ a roll
- Betty Crocker Warm Delights for 17¢
- Kix cereal for 74¢ a box
- Red Baron Singles pizzas (box of 2) for 75¢
- Dawn Dishwashing Liquid (which I use to strip cloth diapers!) for FREE
- Uncle Ben’s Long Grain & Wild Rice FREE
- Wishbone Dressing FREE
- 3lb bag of Mahatma white rice FREE
And the list goes on and on. Obviously I got multiples of a lot of these items. I had 2-3 of each newspaper coupon, as well as some printed off the internet. I knew that I if I had 5 of one internet printable coupon, I could only use 2 at a time. I knew that only the first 20 coupons under 99¢ tripled. And I knew that they might run out of things so that even if I planned ahead, I might find that flexibility was the key to a successful shopping trip. I also learned about how I could better plan ahead so that the next time they run triples I can save even more!
Here’s the math…
My kids love fruit snacks, but they’re expensive at $2.89/box. They are each allowed one package a day, so we go through a box of 10 in less than a week. This gets expensive, so when they go on sale for $2/box, we stock up. Except this time was triple coupons and I had a whole stack of 40¢ coupons for BC fruit snacks! This knocked an additional $1.20 off each box, bringing us down to 80¢.
- $2.89 each (or about 29¢ per individual package)
- minus 89¢ = $2 each sale price
- minus $1.20 for manufacturer coupon = 80¢ total for each box (or 8¢ per individual package)
For the jelly, I found coupons online and printed them. The regular price is $2.59 per 32 oz jar. They were on sale 2/$4, which made them $2 each. I had a 75¢ off coupon that tripled to $2.25, which made these completely free.
- $2.59 each
- minus 59¢ = $2 each sale price
- minus $2.25 for manufacturer coupon = FREE!!!
