Tuesday, May 31, 2011

My first BIG Albertsons purchase

(**Long post but totally worth reading if you are newer to couponing and wanting to know the details on how I did this.)

So my SIL and I have been working on putting together an Albertsons run. We've heard about these great "Twice the Value" (TTV) coupons that Albertsons offers every couple of weeks and we wanted to take advantage of them. So, after hard efforts of collecting enough "Twice the Value" coupons, we each put together our shopping lists, matching up our manufacturer coupons with the Twice the Value's. We knew we wanted a lot of the Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce so we actually called the manager and put in a special order. This way, we were assured enough bottles when we got there. We also ordered mfr. coupons for a very small price...this is how many couponers are able to create stockpiles and get the number of coupons needed.

The store manager was amazing. He was very helpful and ended up opening up a lane just for me. Normally, you are allowed three transactions at a time and you are allowed only three "Twice the Value" coupons per transaction. After three transactions, you have to go back and get in line again. I was prepared to go through the line 3 times. Yes, I had 8 transactions. However, I was so thankful that the manager was willing to just do my transactions himself back-to-back. It was the smoothest check-out I've had with such a large amount of items.

Here's what was included:

Transaction #1:
2 Jet Puff Marshmallows (mfr. for a b1g1)
1 6-pk Hershey Chocolate Bars (mfr for $2.00 off)
1 Honey Maid Graham Crackers
3 Nestle Drumstick ice cream treats (TTV used w/ each mfr. coupon)

OOP: $4.49
Total Savings: $19.24 (each line of savings includes store card savings & coupons combined)

Transaction #2,3,4 & 5:
10 Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce (three TTV used w/ five $1/2 mfr. cpn)
(when you special order, you get the items in boxes and not bagged like the rest...that was weird!)

OOP: $0.00
Total Savings (per transaction): $27.00

Transaction #6:
4 Clorox Toilet Bowl Cleaners (2 TTV w/ mfr. cpns.)
1 Best Foods Mayo
3 Crystal Light (b2g1 mfr. cpn)
2 Oscar Meyer Turkey & Cheese Hot Dogs (TTV w/ mfr. cpn.)

OOP: $6.27
Total Savings: $29.39

Transaction #7:

2 Jet Puff Marshmallows (mfr. for b1g1)
1 6-pk Hershey Chocolate Bars (mfr. for $1.00 off)
1 Honey Maid Graham Crackers
3 Kraft Cheese Deli Deluxe Cheese (3 TTV w/ mfr. cpns.)

OOP: $6.96
Total Savings: $16.17

Transaction #8:
10 32 oz. Gatorade (10 for $5)
1 Nestle Drumstick ice cream treat ($1.00 mfr. cpn.)

OOP: $6.93
Total Savings: $17.19

Yes, that was a lot of transactions. I went with no children and I took my time. I had my coupons separated out by transaction and had a sticky note on each pile so I knew exactly what I needed to pull out of my cart for that transaction.

Here's our first special order purchase from Albertsons a week ago. We knew they were having a sale on the Ronzoni Garden Pasta...$1 a box. We also knew that we could purchase for just a couple of $$ some $1 off each box coupons. So, we ordered coupons and called the manager with our special order. Here's what I got and my SIL got the same.
10 boxes of spaghetti noodles
10 boxes of penne
10 boxes of rotini

OOP: $0.00
 Total Savings: $30.00
**This will be great for pasta salads this summer!!

2 comments:

May Flower Mama said...

I also had a good day at Albertsons on Tuesday. They even gave me $1.00 off my end total for having to wait in line. Umm...yes I'll be back again when they do that.

Janice said...

HELP ME PLEASE!!! You go girl!!