Kroger success! $133 in Groceries... for $37

Okay, so while it may not be well-known except maybe to my patient spouse, one of my couponing frustrations as a newbie has been what I call "The 50% WALL." The 50% Wall exists primarily at Kroger and often Walmart. It it is not an issue if one intends to go in for a relatively SMALL run of items consisting mostly of snagging the stuff that is free or close to it. But go in to purchase a larger number? It's tough. For me it's tough because I'm usually adding meats or frozen dinner/lunch items to mix. And I'm just NOT the kind of couponer who feels the need to go buy TEN of anything. (I don't have that kind of stash anyway.)

But today, the wall came down. :-)

A big part of it was Kroger's Mega Buy 10 Get $5 Off Sale. But I also made sure to make a very specific list of the items I needed/wanted to buy and I stuck to it. Mostly. Well, until the 2nd store on the way home.

I bought 38 items at Kroger, 30 of which qualified for the Mega Sale. Here are the numbers:

BEFORE Sale/Coupons: $86.86
AFTER Kroger Sale: $67.28 (not bad, but not great!)
-------------------------------------

AFTER Sale and Coupons: $16.20

I saved 81%! I've normally only ever done that at CVS!

Okay, so after that I was riding a small high so I stopped by Food City. Usually? I don't really care for Food City for regular groceries. They're priced high to start with and they don't double coupons at all. But they had Cottonelle Toilet Tissue on sale for $5.99, we were low, and with my $1 coupon it made for a good price for 12 double rolls. I also had a $5 Giftcard to use up.

I do love Food City for their meats, especially the marinated stuff, and so of course I went straight to the Manager's Special section. Feeling like we deserved a treat, and since it's grilling season, I managed to score 5 nice NY Strip Steaks for only $15! They were originally $30! I also snagged some Tyson chicken strips for the spouse to snack on (coupon). And the TP. :-)

Adding those in to be fair....

BEFORE Sale/Coupons: $133.43

-------------------------------------
AFTER Sale and Coupons: $37.30 (keeping in mind $15 of that is STEAK.. yum)

Total Savings: 72 %

And here's what I got! I know, it's lame to be so proud of a decent haul, but I am!

Here's a list of what I snagged (some free treats/some staple items and supplies/other stuff I got for other people because it was $0.25 or less!):

(5) NY Strip Steaks

(2) Tyson Chicken Breast Tenders

(2) Sunny D Smoothie

(2) Temptations Cat Treats

(2) Zatarains Rice & Beans

(4) Healthy Choice Complete Entrees

(4) Kraft Mac & Cheese

(2) Fiber One Yogurt 4-packs

(2) Smart Balance Butter Spreads

(2) A-1 Steak Sauce

(1) Cheezits

(1) Quaker Quakes

(1) Chex Mix Snack Mix

(2) Chiquita Single-Serve Apple Bites w/ Caramel Dip

(2) Peaches

(1) Mango

(1) Duracell 4-pk AAA Batteries

(1) Rolaids Antacids

(1) Motrin Ibuprofen Caplets

(1) Colgate Max White Toothpaste

(2) Softsoap Hand Soap

(2) Playtex Hand-Saver Kitchen Gloves

(2) Speed Stick Deodorants

(1) Hartz Crunch 'n Clean Dog Biscuits