Price Chopper Steals & Deals...Olay & Clearance Food

Price Chopper Grocery Stores had a small sized Olay Body Wash on special this past week(July 19-25) at 2 for $3(or $1.50 each). I had 20 Coupons from the 7/5 P&G Sunday Coupon Insert-$2 off 1 Olay Body or Shower Wash.
So you KNOW I had to make a trip to PC this week. Mindful of being within $100 of going over my July budget & a week left to go in the month, I set out to the store. I had figured out ahead of leaving for the store that I would spend $5.15 including the tax on the Body Wash.
Piece of Cake, right?

Of course, seeing as I was trying so hard to keep within this $500 food/toiletries budget for July, as soon as I walked into the store I was greeted by 6 shopping carts full of just marked down items right at the door!
Argh!
Oh the temptation of cheap cheap foodstuffs.....
My downfall.

Here are the things I just couldn't leave the store without.

2 bags of Goya Beans @.50ea.=$1.00 (less than half price)
6 large containers of Rice Select rice @$2 ea.=$12.00(Texmati, Arborio, Jasmine) (I've seen this go for between $6-$7 ea. in stores)
6 boxes of Jasmine Rice @.50ea.=$3.00 ($2-$3 in stores)
2 Ginger Noodles @$1 ea.=$2.00 (Not such a tremendous price but daughter likes)
2 Goya large Tomato Paste @.32ea.=$.64 (reg. over $1 a can)
3 boxes asstd. wheat Pasta @.35ea.=$1.05 (reg. $1.50 a box)
1 Ginger flavored Soy Sauce @.50ea.=$.50 (reg. over $2 bottle)
2 Wild Rice Mixes @.79ea.=$1.58 (about half price)
2 Goya Rice Flour @.29ea.=$.58 (reg. $2.49 bag!)
2 A&H Essentials Cleaner Refills @.75ea.=$1.50 (reg. $4 or so ea.)
1 Bag PC brand Dog Food @.69ea.=$.69 (not sure reg. price-much more than .69¢ tho)
Subtotal $24.54

Then it was on to the items I came into the store to buy....

20 Olay Body Wash(I broke this up into multiple transactions & went through the line 4 times. I've summarized all these trips with the food item trip for clarity's sake here.)@$1.50ea.=$30.00

6 Ragu Pasta Sauce @BOGO 2/$2.19=$6.57
SubTotal $36.57

Total for all items $61.11
Tax $1.21
Total before Coupons $62.32

Coupons Used
20 Olay $2/1 (Adjusted down to $1.50ea.)=$30.00
2 Ragu $1.25/3=$2.50
Coupon Total $32.50

$62.32-$32.50=$29.82OOP

The regular retail on all this at P.C. is at least $125.00(low end actual figure is $124.64).
That's about a 76% Savings.

This(along with the $5.40 I spent at KMart this week)brings my July Food/Toiletries Spending to $415.06-still under $500 total. I have a little bit I spent at WAGS & CVS this week still to account for in upcoming posts.

I found out later that there is a printable coupon for $2/1 Rice Select. ugh! Since I had no clue it would be on deep deep discount before I got to the store, and I wasn't about to go back to see if any was left once I had printed out a coupon, there is no way I could have done better on the price of those 6 jugs of rice. I would venture further that HAD I returned with a $2/1 Q in hand and tried to get any of these $2 discounted containers of Rice for FREE, this being a Price Chopper(they are not known for being 'coupon friendly' here!), the cashier or front-end supervisor would have had some reason why they would have denied to accept the coupons. They are good at making up the rules as they go along if they see you are about to get something for pennies or for free. They gave me a big enough hassle over the Olays!lol

But it would have been nice to have had coupons to get all that Rice Select rice for FREE!
$15 for over 18 lbs. of Fancy Pants Rice is worth doing the Happy Dance over. This will keep us in rice for some time to come.

Sluggy