Jeff Baldwin
Written by
Jeff Baldwin

How I got $475 in Groceries for Free

October 15, 2011 7 Comments

It was a chilly March, if I recall correctly.  I hadn’t been a big couponer back then, but I had been getting started.  I had a 3-ring binder with several weekly coupon inserts that had barely been touched.  Who knew I would stumble in something big…very, very big!

I had just picked up the latest Meijer weekly ad, and noticed a very nice General Mills/Betty Crocker promotion going on–specifically, “Buy any 10, get $10 back” on specifically marked items.  Everything listed was at least $1.50 or more, so it wasn’t going to be as easy as pie.  However, I knew in the back of my mind that I had coupons for many of the items listed.  Within minutes, I had my coupon binder, a calculator, and the weekly ad on the coffee table, trying to figure out the best deals.

My calculations showed that if I purchase 4 cereal boxes, 4 popcorn boxes, and 2 Yoplait Smoothies, my total would be about $7.18 after coupons, and with the fact that I would get $10 back, it was even better than free.  The next day, I ripped out every General Mills and Betty Crocker coupon that I had in my binder, and then printed every one I could find at Coupons.com and SmartSource.com.  I even asked all my coworkers to print some for me, and by then the coupons were stacking up.

I made a trip to Meijer and bought my first 10 items.  ”That will be $7.18, sir” the cashier said.  And after paying for the order, the $10 coupon printed out–good for one $10 gift card (redeemable the next week).  After putting the groceries in the car, I would go right back in and do it again.  I mixed-and-matched different items as well–cake mix & frosting, chex mix, Bisquick, cookie mix, granola bars, and Warm Delights.  Most of the time, the total was still under $10.00.

Just 18 trips later, I had amassed a large amount of breakfast cereal and snacks.  I had spent a whopping $175.51 for all of this food, and Meijer gave me back $180 in gift cards the following week, of which we purchased milk, produce, and gasoline for the rest of the month.  If there were no sales, gift cards, or coupons that week, and I were to purchase all of those things outright, I would have spent $475 for all of this.

Pictures? Did you want to see pictures of this?  Of course–and here they are.

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Comments

  • Lisa Dunham

    I know this young man and his wife. I can tell you – you better believe he did it. I believe of all my college kids he stands out as the one who can cash in on the best deals. Way to go Jeff just another way of being a good steward.

  • Natalie Mack

    Well I’ll tell you honey boo boo child, this sounds like the deal of the year! You taught me how to save with a capital ESS (pronounced ESS). At my local Publix grocery store, Cheerios were on sale for $2.50/box. I had coupons for $0.25 off. So I got the Cheerios for $2.25. Talk about saaavings! I went ahead and bought 40 boxes of Cheerios. That means I saved $10 total: enough to feed the family (momma, jed, cleatus, lil beverly, baby tanya-jo, baby plank, and sometimes, my brother willy) for a week.

    LOVE ME!

  • Brittany LaBerge

    But was this $175 worth of stuff that you really needed, or were you just spending money to get money…?

  • http://couponkomodo.com/ Mr. Komodo

    Wow, what an amazing coupon story. I bet it didn’t take too much work either. I’m sure this story will inspire more people to save from using coupons as well.

  • Jeff

    @ Natalie,
    This was an amazing week, but these types of deals don’t match up like this every week. It’s usually a once or twice a year phenomenon.

    @ Brittany,
    I didn’t need most of this stuff. *However, I did use most of it, as the cereal replaced many of my meals and snacks for about a year. Instead of buying dessert or making it, I made a cake instead. The chex mix and popcorn served as our snacks for 6-8 months. And we made pancakes with the bisquick for about a year. I also had Yoplait yogurt smoothies for about a month as well. Our grocery bill went down about $30-$40/week after this extravaganza.

    @ Mr. Komodo,
    Thanks! I hope it does inspire many.

  • USA Smart Source

    Great Story, but i like pictures more :)
    the only thing, i would like to ask is, what was the amount you spended ?
    My Best saving in 1 day, was a few weeks ago at Walgreens, i’ve bought vitamins for about $700 and didnt spent any dime…

  • Mark

    $475 worth of crap! Every item is completely unfit for any sort of a healthy lifestyle. Where are the whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables? Popcorn, pre-mixed cakes, preserved icing, yogurt drinks, sugary cereal, and junk food. Talk about responsible, let’s just pave the path for ourselves and our kids to be obese and at high risk for diabetes.

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