Clipping Coupons...is It Worth It? Well, That Depends

Went to Ingles today to shop. I normally don't find many of my bargains there. My WH had 2 co-workers here for the day (training, etc.). I told them about my shopping adventure when I popped into his home office to say "hi". One of them had never heard of Ingles and thought it must be some spectacular savings store. The other nearly fell out of his chair laughing. He assured her that there was nothing in Ingles in and of itself to make it a bargain-shopper's dream.

But I digress. I was in the checkout line at Ingles. The woman in front of my had about 6 bags of various items that I could not see because it was bagged when I arrived. Her total came to $162.something. She was ranting about the high price of food. Then she pulled out some coupons and her total went down to $150.something after they were scanned. She turned to me and said, "That's a lot better, isn't it?" I smiled and said she did well, and I was happy for her.

Let me pause to interject that I have so much to learn about this stockpiling while prices are rock bottom thing. I feel like the past 4 weeks of this type of shopping (email me for details) has been a whole education in grocery shopping.

Once all my items were rung up, my bill was $120.something. After the cashier scanned my Ingles card it went down almost $20. That reflects lower prices for those who have signed up and present their special card. That was great, right? Even better was my grand total due after my coupons were scanned...$37.86. I thought that was a bit high, but I did buy a few items that never go very low, even on sale. Plus, the coupons were not doubled like they are at two of the stores I shop at weekly.

Here's what I got with that...

~2 candy bars my son asked me to buy him for his brothers as a reward for helping clean up the room the 3 of them share (I will be reimbursed for that tomorrow). That was $1.46.

~20 4-packs of AA and AAA batteries (I will resell 16 packs of them tomorrow and be paid 50 cents more per package than I paid, netting me $8 profit).

~3 Benefiber (38 serving) powder (ditto on the resale, netting me $12).

~10 eight-ounce packages of luncheon meats (honey ham and grilled turkey to be exact). I will also be reselling most of these for I don't know how much yet.

~2 loaves of Italian bread (an extravagance...$1.68 EACH), but we can't do Italian w/o it.

~the big priced item...ground chuck @1.78 a pound. I bought 9-1/2 pounds. This is a good price around here. I brown and drain it all at once, then pack it into sandwich baggies, one pound per bag, and freeze it. Instantly ready for spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, tacos, cheeseburger soup, etc.

I did fairly well overall. The cashier asked, "Why in the world did you tell the woman in front of you that she did well and you were happy for her?" I replied that I thought she did, and I was. Besides...she didn't know who she was up against ;)

~Joan