Welcome to the Cereal Room

I have a "root cellar" in my basement that looks like this:

Ok, so before you either call the producers of Extreme Couponing or have me committed, let me explain.  What you are looking at is 46 boxes of cold cereal.  I couldn't even fit all of them in the picture. They are stacked two deep.  So you're probably thinking, WHY would I buy 46 boxes of cereal in one week?? 

No, my family doesn't go through that much cereal in a week, or even a month (close, though!) Basically, when buying non-perishable food items that I know my family likes and uses, I always have in the back of my mind the "Rock Bottom Price."  When I find a deal for a certain item that is at or below my rock bottom price, I stock up, so I never have to pay full price. 

What is a "Rock Bottom Price?"  It is the lowest price I have been able to buy an item for in recent (last 6 months) history.  This includes the use of commonly available coupons (usually coupons worth between .50 and $1 found on coupons.com or in the newspaper inserts.)  It obviously doesn't include occasional coupons I get for free products (more on this in upcoming posts!), because free is the Ultimate Rock Bottom Price. 

So here's how I ended up with 43 pounds of cereal in my basement.

First,  I routinely find coupons for General Mills and Kelloggs products in the newspaper and on coupons.com.  I try to use the $.75 off ones first because they are doubled at my store, making a box of Cheerios that retails for $3.29 cost only $1.79 (which, by the way, is 20 cents cheaper than the store brand "toasted Os").  That is my Rock Bottom Price for cereal using coupons at the grocery store, so I used all the coupons I could clip and print because many were about to expire. 

Next, I made a trip to BJs Warehouse Club.  I had a BJs store coupon for $5 off any three Kelloggs' items, which I stacked with a $1 off 3 Kellogs manufacturer's coupon (usually found in the Red Plum newspaper inserts), for a total of $6 off my three items -- 2  double packs of cereal and a box of Special K chips. 

Finally, one of the blogs I follow occasionally lists special Amazon deals.  Using AmazonMom, the Subscribe&Save option, and an online coupon code, I was able to buy a 4-pack of Raisin Bran Crunch -- one of my husband's favorite cereals -- for  $5.37, making each box only $1.39. Since this price is well beyond my rock-bottom price of $1.79 per box, I snagged 32 boxes!

Here's how it all went down:

Grocery Store

10 boxes: Retail Price=$33.00 My price= $17.90

BJ's

4 boxes: Retail Price= $14.76 My price= $7.20

Amazon

32 boxes: Retail Price $102.08  My price= $44.48 

Retail Price= $149.84

My Total= $69.68

Total Savings= 46%