Target Shopping Trip and HUGE Mistake: But Still Saved 43%

We went to Target this afternoon (after stopping by Starbucks for our Holiday BOGO treat, yum!) and had a quick family shopping day.  We were able to get some great deals, but we did make one HUGE mistake.   We haven’t purchased toilet paper in a very long time.  In fact, we have been running this site for a year and sharing each of our shopping trips with you all here and realized that we had only purchased the small 4-packs a couple of times this past year.

Honestly, the reason why is because we were able to stockpile toilet paper from sales from 2-3 years ago.  The space under our basement stairs have been filled with toilet paper and paper towels.  Well, today, we brought up the LAST 4-pack! We did not see/notice this coming (as the space has gradually filled with diaper packages, paper towels, paper products and other miscellaneous household items).  And as we were walking out the door, we remembered that we needed toilet paper.  So we had a Target coupon and manufacturer’s coupon (2 each as they were printables) and went against our own rule! We purchased two of the largest packages that Target had – we tell everyone to buy in small packages and use a coupon on each to maximize savings.  But in this case, we had 2 Target coupons and 2 manufacturer’s coupons – so we purchased 2 packs. AND we did NOT want to run out of toilet paper (that is not a pleasant thing).  In addition it wasn’t on sale either – so I guess we have to admit that we really didn’t get that great of a deal overall. We are going to try to plan better in the future so we do not get caught by surprise for this valuable home necessity robbing us of our dollars again!

But in a quest to be a thrifty shopper – often times you win some and sometimes you don’t!

So…. without much further ado… here is a picture of our shopping trip.

Here’s the breakdown:

• The BIG Toilet Paper purchase! Two (the largest on the shelf) packs of Scott toilet paper for $16.29 = $32.58. Then used two $1.00/1 Scott printables and stacked with two $1.50 Target coupons – $5.00 = final is$27.58 for two or $13.79 each.
  
• 1 Pringles Extreme for $1.34. Then used FREE coupon = final is FREE.
• 2 lg. cans of Swanson White Chicken breast sale for $2.39 each = $4.78. Then used .75/2 10/3 Smart Source Insert = final is $4.03 for two or $2.02 each.
  
• 1 Mahatma Long Grain Brown Rice 2-lb bag sale for $2.14. Then used .50/1 printable = final is $1.64.
• 1 Bakers coconut sale for .99. Then used .50/1 Target printable = final is .49
• 1 5-lb box of Cuties Clementines for $6.99. Then used $1.00/1 Target produce printable = final is $5.99
• 7Up Pomegranate soda sale for $1.25.  This was an unplanned purchase as it just looked so good and interesting! Going to drink it with real pomegranate seeds! Sounded so good and can’t wait to try it = final is $1.25
• 3 Canada Dry Soda sale for $1.25 each = $3.75. then used $1.00/3 peelie coupon = $2.75 for three or .92 each.
  
• 2 Nivea Men’s Body Wash for $3.99 each = $7.98. Then used two $3.00/1 printables – $6.00 = final is $1.98 for two or .99 each
• 1 Prevacid for $10.89. Then used $5.00/1 Target coupon and stacked with $4.00/1 printable – $9.00 = final is $1.89.
• 2 Kraft Mozzarella cheese sale for $1.80 AND 2 Philadelphia Cream Cheese for $1.19 each = $5.98. Then used one $1.00/2 Target Kraft printable (for mozzarella) and two $1.00 off both Kraft cheese and Philadelphia cream cheese peelie – $3.00 = final is $2.98 for 4 or .75 each.
  
• 4 Reach Floss for .97 each = $3.88. Then used two $1.50/2 Target printables and stacked with 4 $1.00/1 printables – $7.00 = final is $3.12 OVERAGE. There have been issues in the past with Target honoring overages, but because one was the Target coupon and the other were manufacturer’s coupons, it did not give us the same trouble.  It took the full $4 off from the manufacturer’s coupon AND the $3.00 off from Target coupons.
• 4 packages of Stride gum for .99 each = $3.96.  Then used 2 $1.00/2 Target coupons = final is $1.96 for 4 or .49 each.
  
• 2 packages of Wrigley’s Dessert Gum for .99 each = $1.98. Then used $1.00/2 Target coupons = final is .98 for two or .49 each
• 2.36 lbs. of bananas at .51 a lb. = $1.89. Then used $1.00/1 Target produce coupons and it only took off .51 (for one lb.) instead of $1.00.  We didn’t catch this at the time as we were watching the ones like the above Reach Floss and it slipped past us (you do have to watch) = final is $1.38.

Summary: The price AFTER the sales prices but BEFORE coupons was $90.38.  We then used $38.60 in coupons = final is $51.78. Considering that $27.58 of this total was just in our toilet paper mistake, the rest of the items cost us $24.20. With the toilet paper mistake, we still managed to save 43% off of the sale prices (even more on the regular prices!) by just using coupons!  Had we used some foresight and not needed the toilet paper, we would have saved a total of 59% off!

We also purchased 17 items for our food/shelter donations this week (in a separate transaction).  These 17 items cost us .44 of our $20 budget. We will share these results after we spend the remaining $19.56 to complete this week’s Stretching $20 For The Food Bank.

Thanks to CompareStorePrices.com for the above picture – you can actually buy a roll of toilet paper like this! LOL!