Good Grocery Shopping Trip

I think I'm a pretty decent grocery shopper, but I really felt like I was losing my abilities as our bills have climbed from $65 a week to often near $100 a week. However, I was talking to a friend this week (she also has three kids, although she has one older than C. instead of one younger than T!) and she said that she spent $320 at the grocery store. I think my jaw hit the floor. Maybe my grocery-shopping abilities really are an anomaly.

Today (double coupon day) I was in line, unloading my groceries, and talking to the checkout person when a college-aged guy got in line behind me with his small cart full of college-type foods. At the end, when I was paying (partially with a giftcard I'd earned the previous week and partly with our credit card that gives us 5% back on grocery store purchases), I apologized for being so slow (they had to call the woman from the service counter over twice). He kindly said "I'm in no hurry and I'm enjoying watching how you shop". The checkout person was one I'd not seen before (most of the regulars "know" me and laugh at me and sometimes roll their eyes at me), and she was in shock at what I saved. I ended up spending $101.31 and saving $79.70. Best of all, I bought a lot of "convenience" foods this trip--things that I can use for soccer nights or Open House nights, or whatever other nights where we're running from school pickup till bedtime.

Some of the highlights of the trip:

Chex mix reg. $2.29, on sale for $1 each, minus $0.25 coupons on each (have you tried the turtle flavor? oh, yummm....)
Ziploc bags reg. $2.55, on sale for $2.25, minus $1 coupons each (doubled)
Beef Sirloin Tip Roasts at "buy one get one free", resulting in a cost of $1.86 a pound
Sunny Valley Orange Juice (not frozen) reg. $2.39 each, sale for $1 each
Daisy Sour Cream 16 oz. reg. $2.09, sale for $1.50 minus $.50 coupons
Perdue Italian Turkey meatballs reg. $3.69, sale for $2.77 minus $2 coupon
Pillsbury Oven-Baked Dinner rolls reg. $3.39, on sale for $2.50, minus $2 coupon
Pillsbury ready-to-bake cookies reg. $2.99, sale $2.50 minus $2 coupon
Pillsbury Toaster Scrambles reg. $2.59, sale $2 minus $2 coupon (free, baby...)

And for "easy"meals, I got:
Frozen ravioli and tortellini (have jarred sauce) and the crusty rolls
Frozen Grecian Delight Gyro kit and fries
Frozen stuffed chicken entrees

They also had lunch boxes for 50% off, so I got each kid one (they were $2.50 and $3 each, but cuter than the ones Target had this year)

AND I got 70 bonus Box Tops for Education (spit out a form at the checkout), so that made $7 more for the school. :)