Earlier this week we mentioned to you that we had received a challenge from reporter/producer Haley at KPVI to see just how far we could stretch $10. We did so but wanted to do it “The Thrifty Couple” way. You’ve probably seen Extreme Couponing and know that in the right circumstances, with hundreds of hours of planning and buko-bucks spent you can save 99% on groceries that would rot out your family’s teeth and grow those guts – we’ve listed before 20 reasons why you won’t see the same results.
Our way is a bit different:
- We bought only items that our family would eat or use – This is our normal, every week type of shopping trip. Our normal, weekly budget is $75 for a family of seven for all our groceries, toiletries and diapers. In all reality, most all our budget goes to produce as even the picture above is not even nearly enough for the amount we consume. Keep up with our full shopping trips here.
- We purchased healthier options – You might note that you not only see produce, milk and meat, but we included organic cereal and produce and natural meat (nitrate-free bacon). Although it worked out to get meat this time, we rarely buy our meat this way and usually buy in bulk from local farmers. It just worked out this time with a coupon we’ve shared on our site.
- We didn’t use coupons on some items – What type of idiots would try to see how far $10 would go and not use coupons on some items? Well, we hope you don’t think we’re idiots, but I guess that would be us. 🙂 Seriously, when you save in other areas that just means you have more budget to spend on items you don’t have coupons for (e.g., grapes and broccoli).
- We bought from the most representative departments in the store – We wanted to show a trip that was real and one that might look like a trip to Walmart for many families.
- We didn’t spend thousands of dollars in preparation – We didn’t use reusable bags (though we have them) nor did we spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars in coupons to get these results. Have you ever seen just how “crisp and clean” many of these reusable bags are for those Extreme Couponers? Did you know that over $1 a pop they are spending hundreds just to get those “extra savings”? We do get four newspapers and print coupons on our printer.
- It should take an average of 30 minutes to get ready for this trip – Did you remember we said this is representative of a normal shopping trip for us? We saved almost $25 on this trip – meaning we made $50/hour (if we counted this as a job) just by investing a few minutes of our time. And no, we didn’t pre-plan this trip weeks in advance (choosing the best week for sales), but rather did this on just a few day’s notice.
There was one little problem however – we missed the $10 budget. No, we didn’t overspend. We underspent by one WHOLE dollar – a $9 trip! We would like to tell you that was planned to the penny, but it wasn’t. We were just very thankful it turned out so well! In fact, one grape more or less would have “ruined the whole dollar experience”! It amazed us – you can’t plan to the penny when you’re buying by the pound. 🙂
So, as promised we wanted to share with you our shopping trip list with coupon matchups so that you can go and do the same shopping trip at your local Walmart!
Please note, the prices will vary on the produce based on the produce prices in your area and the weight of the produce if you are paying buy the pound! Also, the deals we find are dependent upon the availability of the coupons. If you can’t find a coupon (its no longer available) then never fear as new coupons and other great deals will just keep popping up. The shopping trip you see here really is representative of what we do on a normal basis; the deals may never be the same but they keep coming!
We encourage you to check the boxes on the items you would like to get and then head to Walmart and enjoy your savings!
With this shopping trip here’s the low-down on the savings:
- The total for all of the above items if bought at Walmart’s everyday prices would have been $33.93
- We price matched 4 items to the local Kroger stores and so this brought our total to $28.50
- We then used $19.50 in coupons which made our final total $9 before tax
Also, if you’re new to our site we want to encourage you that you can save everyday just like this. As Haley mentions, its about finding sites like ours (for FREE – you don’t pay to use our site!) that have already done the work for you. We encourage you to check us out and learn to save everyday in every way just by watching our daily tips and tricks:
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Now on with the $9 Walmart Shopping list! Have Fun!
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Ashley
Wowzers! That is truly impressive.