Tammy, The Super Saver!

Tammy is frugal. Or more properly: Tammy is Frugal (TM). Not cheap, mind you--if there is an item of need or heavy use she is willing to save so we can purchase a high quality, durable item that is enjoyable to use. Yet Tammy is always on the lookout for a good sale on items we frequently use. 

Knowing Tammy's knack for frugality, I should have raised my eyebrows a couple more times when she asked if I would take her shopping tonight. I cannot even remember the last time she asked me to take her shopping! (Note from Tammy: I usually hate shopping!)

Tammy's desired destination? Krogers. Purpose? Crazy savings that her friend Crystal pointed out in her blog. [1] (Catherine also blogged about this special in her blog [2]!) How do I define crazy savings? How about paying $27.92 for $173.14 worth of staple groceries -- that is a savings of $145.22 (or 84% discount).

Yes, you read that right. We paid $27.92 for $173.14 worth of food.

The best news is that if you act fast, you may be able to cash in on these savings as well, but you probably don't have much time (our Kroger sales end on Sunday). The following sales, discounts, and coupons are how we saved $145.22 on food.

• Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese, normally $1.17, is on sale for $1.09.
• Kraft Miracle Whip, normally $3.43 per 32 oz. jar, is on sale for $2.00 (2 for $4).
• Kraft Cheese, normally $3.09 per 8 oz. block, is on sale for $1.67 (3 for $5).
• Kraft Cheese coupon, buy 3 get $1 off (coupon from dispenser in the Kraft cheese section)
• Kroger Bonus Coupon: Double the $1 off coupon*
• Kroger's is having a sale on select Kraft items, purchase 8 items and get $7 back.

We use a lot of these items, so we stocked up. In total, we purchased 72 items. This is how it broke down (the "$7 off per 8 items" sale is added at the very end):

Kraft Philly Cream Cheese (8 oz. block)
Packages Purchased: 28
Normal Price: $1.17; $32.76 total before savings
Sale Price: $1.09; $30.52 sale price
Sale Savings: $2.24

Kraft Miracle Whip and Mayo (32 oz jar)
Jars Purchased: 13
Normal Price: $3.43; $44.59 total before savings
Sale Price: $2.00; $26.00 sale price
Sale Savings: $18.85

Kraft 8 oz. Blocks of Cheese (Sharp Chedder, Monterey Jack with Jalapenos, Mozzarella)
Packages Purchased: 31
Normal Price: $3.09; $95.79 total before savings
Sale Price: $1.67; $51.77 sale price
Sale Savings: $44.02

Coupons: $9
Double Coupons: $9
Total Coupon Savings: $18
Price after Sale Price & Coupons: $33.77 ($1.09 per package)
Total Coupon and Sale Savings on Kraft Cheese: $62.02

To quickly summerize, before we include the "Buy 8 items, get $7 off" sale, our total looked something like this:

Normal Price: $173.14
Sale Price: $90.92
Savings: $82.85

We didn't save much on the cream cheese (we typically get this at Aldi for $0.89 per 8 oz. block), but the Miracle Whip sale was a pretty good savings. The big savings came from the cheese, where after the sale price and coupons we saved over $62 on cheese. The cheese price is pretty good for name brand cheese. At best we typically can get Kroger cheese on sale once in a blue moon for 10 for $10 and Aldi's cheese is typically $1.49 per 8 oz. block so we did really well with the cheese!

We typically don't buy name brand items, so our savings are kind of deceiving at this point. $90.29 is about what we would typically pay for these items when we do our typical, "Stock up on sales" shopping strategy. So not a bad trip to the store, but not extraordinary at this point.

Where the big savings come from are the, "Buy 8 items, get $7 off" sale Krogers is having on select Kraft items. You guessed it, everything we purchased is on that list. We purchased 72 items... yes, the picture is becoming much clearer now... which means we had 9 groups of 8 items. 9 multiplied by $7 is a $63 savings! So after the Kroger special (which ends Sunday night for us), our total now looks like this:

Sale Price: $90.92
$7 off (per 8 items) Discount: $63
Final Price: $27.92

To put this into perspective, the normal price for each of these items averages out to $2.40 each. After all our savings on sales, coupons, and discounts we paid $0.39 per item -- a whopping $2.01 savings per name brand item!

Now that is what I call crazy savings! Based on our normal sale shopping tactics Tammy, at minimum, just saved our family over $60!

You will need to pardon me now because I have some shopping to do on Amazon.com ;)

My fridge (I still have butter from a sale on that back in December!)

*We were a little confused that all of our "save $1 on 3" cheese coupons were being doubled, but the cashier assured us that it was supposed to be happening that way (we did the u-scan, and were there for about 25 minutes!).