Our Food Bank Shopping Trip
Being volunteer shoppers for the White Center Food Bank can be a daunting task sometimes, especially for couponers like us. The Kiwanis Club of White Center donated $400 to be used in the 2012 15th Annual $1 Million Dollar Giveaway to Fight Hunger. Created by Alan Shawn Feinstein, a nationally known philanthropist and humanitarian and founder of the Feinstein Foundation, this challenge divides up one million dollars among participating hunger fighting agencies March 1st through April 30th, 2012. Based on the weight of the donations, last year the White Center Food Bank received $933.35.
We wanted to get the most we could for the $400 so Suzanne and I and my daughter Kelly set off for Winco. First we went up and down every aisle to see what was on sale – Winco doesn’t publish weekly sales fliers so you don’t know what’s on sale until you get there. Kelly had her i-phone so she logged onto www.couponmom.com to use the coupon database to see if there were coupons available to match up with the sale items. We made a huge list and then went to the nearest McDonald’s and set up shop (and had lunch).
We brought all of our coupon bins in and started clipping. A few people asked us what on earth we were doing and if we were extreme couponers! Once we had all of our coupons clipped and organized, we headed back to Winco. We grabbed two carts and filled them to the brim. Here’s what we got:
10 Totino’s Pizzas
9 Yoplait 4pks of yogurts
10 Lawry’s marinades
57 Tuna Helpers
9 Stove Top Stuffings
32 cans of chili
18 cans of pineapple
8 kielbasas
16 boxes of Jello
24 Pillsbury pizza crusts
99 cans of Progresso soup
20 Yakisobas
11 jars of pickles
15 cans of tuna
We spent $341.76 and saved $143.66. We were a little disappointed in the savings, until we priced out the exact same items at Safeway just to see what we would have spent at another grocery store. If we had bought the same items at Safeway and used the exact same coupons, we would have spent $655.37! By shopping at Winco we saved $313.61 over Safeway.
Suzanne spent the remainder of the money on 10 bags of chicken at .69/lb and 30 Ken’s salad dressings at Safeway just yesterday. She spent $48 and saved $153.
Check out the post on the White Center Foodbank’s facebook page about our shopping trip!