I have therefore decided to continue on with this project without clipping coupons. That means that instead of getting discounts of 80% – 100%, I will only be able to get discounts in the 60% – 80% range most of the time. These are still good discounts over the regular retail price, but still not the deals I was getting in the past. That being said, I will try to let readers know if they can get an even better deal with coupons even if I am not using them, and it should also show that it’s possible to get pretty decent discounts when grocery shopping even without clipping coupons.

This week at Safeway (through Tuesday) Nature Valley granola bars are on sale for $1.49 each when you buy at least four. There is also a catalina coupon for $3.00 off your next purchase with the purchase of 5 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars (since this coupon is given to you at the cash register, I do not consider it clipping coupons). This means when you buy 5 boxes of Nature Valley granola (cost $7.45), you get a $3.00 coupon from the cash register for you next purchase making the price $4.45 for five boxes (you will need to pay $7.45 for the first purchase of 5 boxes, but if you decide to buy more, you can use the $3.00 catalina coupon in addition so all purchase after will be $4.45 — and you’ll get another $3.00 off coupon again so you will still have that at the end when you finished the granola purchases).

I was able to purchase 65 boxes of Nature Valley granola with a retail value of $259.35 for $57.85. This was a 78% discount over the normal retail price or $0.89 a box without clipping any coupons. I have to admit that I have an affinity for Nature Valley because they also support our National Parks where I do most of my traveling these days, so it was an added bonus to this purchase. The final feather in the cap was that these all come with Box Tops for Education (some with double) that I will take off before donating to the food bank and will give to local schools so they can get needed supplies for free.

For those of you out there that have been saving coupons, there are some out there that you can use to bring the price down to $3.10 for 5 boxes ($0.62 per box).

$0.60 off 2 Nature Valley Granola Bars Printable Coupon
$0.60 off 2 Nature Valley Granola Bars Printable Coupon
$0.75 off 3 Nature Valley Granola Bars from General Mills 8/5 insert
$0.50 off 2 Nature Valley Granola Bars Printable Coupon

While the upcoming posts may not be of as much interest to you that coupon, it might be to those of you who have friends that like the idea of extreme couponing, but hate the idea of clipping coupons. No matter what you situation, I hope to show that you can greatly reduce the amount you spend by shopping the best deals each week (with coupons or without them) to save money for yourself (and hopefully for your local food bank)

Way back in January I had $1.00 off 1 Rozoni pasta coupons and they went on sale at Nob Hill for $0.99 making them free. While I bought quite a few boxes of the pasta at that time, I didn’t want to run out their stores entirely, so I left plenty of extra boxes so others could take advantage of the sale.

I had plenty of extra coupons and there weren’t enough boxes even after visiting all the Nob Hill stores in my area to use all of them up. I decided to ask one of the managers at a local Nob Hill if he would be willing to order extra boxes so that I could use the extra coupons I had and get the pasta for free. The manager was more than willing to help out, but because the sale was only one week long, he didn’t think that the order would come in before the sale ended.

I explained what I tried to do to Karen who works at the Milpitas Food Pantry and apologized for not being able to get more boxes for her. She called up a Nob Hill manager she knew and explained the situation. Nob Hill was courteous enough to say they would extend the $.99 price for the pasta and sell it to us as long as the coupons didn’t expire. Since there were still a couple months left before the coupons expired, we didn’t think that there would be any issue at all. We asked Nob Hill to order us 1000 boxes of the pasta.

About a month later, we received a call saying that a manager from Rozoni wanted to talk to us. We called to find out that the manager wanted to see the coupons we were planning to use. We scanned the coupon and sent it to the manager and received a reply that she never had seen these coupons and implied that we were counterfeiting them. Since she didn’t believe the coupons were real, she refused to sell the pasta to us.

Although greatly disappointed (and a bit offended of being accused of something we were most definitely not doing), I know these things happen from time to time while couponing and I thought that was the end of it. Karen had other ideas. She wrote a letter to upper management at Rozoni basically saying that if they didn’t want to sell pasta to us, then simply say that, but don’t use as an excuse that coupons that their company clearly distributed were not real to get out of selling the pasta.

It took some time to work through the system, but eventually Karen received a phone call from a vice-president at Rozoni apologizing and saying that they were more than willing to accept the coupons. The only issue was that the coupons had already expired by that time. To their credit, Rozoni said they would honor the spirit of the coupons and send the Milpitas Food Bank 1000 boxes of pasta for free.

Although it took awhile, we were able to secure $2290.00 worth of food for free. Readers and I have now donated over $53,000 worth of food to local food banks. If you would like to participate, it would be great to have you join. Not only will you be able to help provide needed food to your local food pantry, you will learn to save quite a bit of money on your own grocery shopping.

I ended up getting 22 packs of gum worth $28.38 for free which will go to the food bank since I rarely chew gum. Readers and I have now donated over $42,000 worth of food to local food banks. If you would like to participate, I’d love to have you join. Not only will you be able to help your local food bank, you will learn to save quite a bit of money on your own grocery shopping.

Readers and I have now donated over $42,000 worth of food to local food banks. If you would like to participate, I’d love to have you join. Not only will you be able to help your local food bank, you will learn to save quite a bit of money on your own grocery shopping.

The purchase is pretty straight forward. The Betty Crocker fruit snacks are on sale for $0.99 each when you buy 4 or more. I bought five boxes for $4.95. I then used a $0.50 off 2 manufacturer coupon from the Sunday paper:

Which made the price $4.45. I then used a $1.50 manufacturer coupon that is currently printing out of the Catalina machine when you buy Betty Crocker snacks (I found my first one in a shopping cart)

This made the price $2.95. I then used a $3.00 off anything Catalina Coupon that is triggered when you buy 5 Betty Crocker fruit snacks:

Making the purchase free. The total value of the 60 boxes was $198.00 which I ended up getting for free. This can be through Tuesday (3/8) if you happen to stop by your local Safeway. Readers and I have now donated over $41,000 worth of food to local food banks. If you would like to participate, I’d love to have you join. Not only will you be able to help your local food bank, you will learn to save quite a bit of money on your own grocery shopping.

While Laura has been making large contributions, even the small ones that anyone can pick up while doing their regular shopping are greatly appreciated.

Readers and I have now donated over $38,000 worth of food to local food banks. If you would like to participate, I’d love to have you join. Not only will you be able to help your local food bank, you will learn to save quite a bit of money on your own grocery shopping.

I did have four coupons for Nature’s Path products that were about to expire which I used to get $17.96 worth of food for free. I received these in the mail when a box of cereal I had ended up having a problem that I informed the company about (it wasn’t even a complaint letter — it was simply letting them know they might have an issue because I do enjoy their product).

Readers and I are closing in on $35,000 worth of food donated to local food banks. If you would like to participate, I’d love to have you join. Not only will you be able to help your local food bank, you will learn to save quite a bit of money on your own grocery shopping.

My local CVS didn’t have the Maalox bottles for $5.49, so I ended up purchasing more expensive bottles that allowed me to hit the $20 mark with only three. It was still a moneymaker, just not quite as much and I ended up using the small overage for some stuff I needed for myself. The total value of the 6 Maalox bottles was $44.94 with no cost out of pocket.

Readers and I have now donated over $30,000 worth of food to local food banks. If you would like to participate, I’d love to have you join. Not only will you be able to help your local food bank, you will learn to save quite a bit of money on your own grocery shopping.

The 61 Ronzoni Garden Delight pasta packages had a retail value of $139.69 and were completely free after coupons. Readers and I have now donated over $30,000 worth of food to local food banks. If you would like to participate, I’d love to have you join. Not only will you be able to help your local food bank, you will learn to save quite a bit of money on your own grocery shopping.