Our Post 2-Week Road Trip Shopping Trip: Empty Fridge, No Coupons and The Results

It is Saturday, March 17th, 2012! We just got home yesterday at 1 am from our big 2-week road trip across the country to attend and speak at the Family Economics Conference in Chicago, visit the Creation Museum in Kentucky, visit my (Cassie) brother and his lovely family from Michigan and travel through many states and see a handful of “free” things to see and do.

It was a time that our family loved and needed! We traveled over 4,000 miles, met some amazing families and you may have seen our trusty Thrifty Helena at several pit stops or cruising down the interstate.

She made it all of those miles and we are very proud of our van! 🙂 If anyone would like, we would also love to share some tips and extras that we did this trip to save a little more money and eat healthy while on the road and what we did to save on this trip!

But with that, we came home and one thing we missed terribly was our 1/2 fruit and 1/2 veggie daily smoothie/meal replacement.  We were very excited to return home to our free Vitamix and whip up some nutrition.  So imagine our disappointment when we opened the fridge to find it empty! Before we left, we tried to consume what we had and gave the remaining perishables to family.  So it was a fridge filled with only condiments and sauces.

With no time to cut or print a single coupon and to even begin looking at deals, I ran to the grocery store to get our base essentials for our family.  Since we were also pretty much starting from scratch, it was a big trip! But like we say, we always share our results with you so you can see what we are doing – even when we don’t have the “perfect money saving plan” in place.

Here’s what we bought: (we had to double and triple stack things to fit it on the table, so this picture really doesn’t show just how much we bought!)

• 4 head of organic cauliflower normally $2.99 marked down to .59 each = final is $2.36
• 1 10 lb. bag of potatoes on sale for $2.59 = final is $2.59
• 1 5lb. bag of red potatoes on sale for $2.50 = final is $2.50
• 3 Dole Baby Greens salad normally $2.99 on markdown for $1.29 each = final is $3.87
• 2 Dole Baby Spinach normally $2.99 on markdown for $1.29 each = final is $2.58
• 2.69 lbs of Tomatoes on sale for $1.19 each lb. = final is $3.20
• 1 3-lb bag of yellow onions for $1.49 each = final is $1.49
• 7 bags of organic celery hearts normally $2.29 each on markdown for .79 each = final is $5.53
• 2 packages of Romaine Hearts normally $2.59 on markdown for $1.19 each = final is $2.38
• 1 head of organic red cabbage regular price of $1.69 per lb. = final is $2.28
• 1 3-lb bag of baby carrots regular price of $3.89 = final is $3.89
• 4 bags of frozen spinach on sale for $1.00 each = final is $4.00
• 1 3.21lb cantaloupe on sale for .49 each lb. = final is $1.57
• 3.13 lbs of apples on sale for .99 each = final is $3.10
• 10.94 lbs of bananas on sale for .55 each lb. = final is $6.02
• 2.53 lbs. of grapes on sale for $1.29 each lb. = final is $3.26
  
• 5 Wholly Guacamole normally $2.99 on markdown for $1.29 each  = final is $6.45
• 1 Corned Beef Brisket on sale for $4.74 = final is $4.74
• 18 jar of Naturally Preferred organic baby food stage 2 on sale for .33 each = final is $5.94
• 5 Greek Yogurt on sale for .80 each = final is $4.00
• 1 Dannon large plain yogurt tub normally $2.99 on markdown for .85 = final is .85
• 2 Dozen Oakdell brown eggs on sale for $1.99 each dozen = final is $3.98
• 1 large Kroger sour cream tub on sale for $1.99 = final is $1.99
• 1 large Kroger cottage cheese tub on sale for $1.99 = final is $1.99
• 2 Baby feeding nets on sale for $2.40 each $4.80.  I did have a digital coupon for .60 off two on my Kroger card = final is $4.20 for two or $2.10
• 1 Kroger brand baby wipes sale for $1.97.  I did have a digital coupon for .60 off Kroger baby wipes = final is $1.37 

Summary: We spent $83.76, but it is all fresh foods (except the 4 frozen spinach which is a super way to buy spinach already pre-shrunk like that :)) and it re-stocked our fridge with the essentials.  I do not know exactly how much we saved because it doesn’t calculate savings on markdowns, but it appears to be in the ballpark of about 60%! We certainly can’t argue with that!

The best news is that we all enjoyed a dinner last night of fresh fruit and veggie smoothies! Everyone was happy again!

Now that we have our fridge back full, we will now figure out what coupons we can utilize this coming week and will share those results when we do!

Also, see our article on 30 Ways to Save Money on Produce where many of the principles from this article were used in our shopping trip this week!

See more of Our Shopping Trip Results