Weekly Price Check

People who do not coupon tend to think that Walmart is the cheapest place to shop, no matter what. So I thought I would do some price comparisons. Hopefully this will make you rethink that a little bit! Don't get me wrong, there are times when you can score GREAT deals and even freebies at Walmart, but generally speaking...you can almost always find better deals at your local supermarket/grocery store with their in-store promotions and sales. Here are some examples of products that we are getting at a great price by matching sales with coupons: (to see last week's "Price Check" click HERE) In order to give you a more accurate price comparison, I will compare purchasing name brand items by matching sales and coupons vs. purchasing store brand (where applicable) at Walmart. (all comparisons are between same size items unless specifically noted)

I thought for this week, what better way to show you than highlighting items from the AWESOME Quaker Sale that was going on last week at Albertsons?

Great Value brand syrup: $1.78. No coupons available.

 

Aunt Jemima syrup - $2.94 There were $1/2 Aunt Jemima pancake mix or syrup coupons available on Ebay. Last week at Albertsons as part of the Quaker promo, these were only $1.40 when you buy 5 participating items! (Already $.38 cheaper than the GV brand) You could purchase six for $9 (one would be full individual price for $2 for not purchasing in an increment of five), use three $1/2 coupons and three double coupons that were available to get all six for $3 or $.50 each. The same five GV brand syrups would cost you $10.68. You save $7.68 over purchasing the store brand. The same name brand syrups with the same coupons would cost you $14.64.

Great Value quick oats - $1.84. No coupons available.

 

 Quaker quick oats - $3.12. There were various coupons available for this, but some we wound up not being able to use because they were believed to be fraudulent, so I will just use the example of the $3/5 coupons that were available, as that is what I used. The Quaker quick oats were on sale for $1.40 each when you bought five (already $.44 cheaper than the GV brand without additional coupons). If you used the $3/5, you would pay just $.80 per can or $4 for five. The same five GV brand would have cost you $9.20. The same name brand with the same coupon would have cost you $12.60! You would save $5.20 for every 5 you bought at Albertsons over purchasing GV brand.

Great Value pancake mix - $1.57. No coupons available.

 

Aunt Jemima pancake mix - $2.34. There was a $1/2 coupon available that our area didn't get, but that could be found on eBay. If you bought this item at Albertsons in increments of five, it was only $1.00! That's already $.57 cheaper than the GV brand! (do you see a pattern here?) If you were to buy 6 boxes for $6.60 (one would be full individual price of $1.60), you could use three $1/2 coupons, plus three double coupons that were available to pay just $.60 for all six items or $.10/ea. The same five GV boxes would cost you $9.42. You save $8.82 over purchasing the store brand. The same six boxes of name brand using the same coupons at Walmart would cost you $11.04. 

Great Value instant oatmeal - $1.68. No coupons available.

Quaker instant oatmeal - $2.54. Once again as part of the promo, when you buy in increments of five, these were $1! Already $.68 cheaper than the GV brand. Again, various coupons available, but I used the $1/2 coupons I got in the boxes of the oatmeal I bought at the last Quaker sale. If you bought six boxes, used three $1/2 coupons, and 3 double coupons, you would pay just $.60 for all six boxes, or $.10 each! The same six boxes of GV brand would cost you $10.08. You save $9.48 over purchasing the store brand. The same six boxes of Quaker oatmeal with the same coupons would cost you $12.24 at Walmart.

Walmart does not carry the same size boxes as Albertsons on all of the cereals, so I decided to make it easy and just do a price/ounce comparison.

 

Walmart - Quaker Oatmeal Squares 24oz - $3.22 (equals $.13/oz) Use $3/5 coupons found on ebay to make it $.11/oz.

Albertsons - Quaker Oatmeal Squares 16oz - $1.00 (equals $.06/oz)

Use $3/5 coupons found on ebay to get these for $.40/box (80 ounces total), making it $.03/oz. You save $.08/ounce purchasing at Albertsons over Walmart.

Walmart - Cap'n Crunch (all varieties equaled roughly the same) 15oz - $2.00 (equals $.13/oz) Use $3/5 coupons found on Ebay to make it $.09/oz.

Malt-o-Meal bagged "Berry Colossal Crunch" 22.5oz - $2.56 (equals $.11/oz)

Albertsons - Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berries 15oz - $1.00 (equals $.07/oz) Use $3/5 coupons to make it $.03/oz. You save $.06-$.08 per ounce purchasing at Albertsons over Walmart.

Walmart - Quaker Life cereal 21oz - $2.88 (equals $.14/oz) Use $3/5 coupon making it $.11/oz)

Albertsons - Quaker Life cereal 15oz - $1.00 (equals $.07/oz) Use $3/5 coupon making it $.03/ounce. You save $.08/oz purchasing at Albertsons over Walmart.

So, all that "per ounce" talk is just jibber jabber to some of you. To put it in perspective, each box, regardless of size cost $.40 at Albies. If you were to buy 15 boxes of varying Cap'n Crunch, you would only pay $6.00 for all FIFTEEN boxes! At Walmart, you would pay around $21.00. You save about $15.00 shopping at Albertsons and matching the sale with a coupon.

Alright, saved the best for last! 

 Great Value chewy granola bars (18 ct) - $3.00 (equals $.17/bar)

Quaker chewy granola bars (10 ct.) - $2.26. The only 10ct boxes I could find in the GV brand were for the 90 calorie bars, so I used the bigger box with 18 bars. So, we will use the price comparison per bar. The 10ct bars were on sale for $1 at Albies when you purchase five (equals $.10/bar...already $.07/bar cheaper than Walmart)  I will use my own personal example for this one, since I'm pretty proud of the money I saved. (First, you have to understand that my husband INSISTS on these whether they are on sale or not, so I have been having to purchase them at FULL-PRICE for weeks now! I was ready to STOCK-UP!) I bought $.55/1 coupons off of eBay and purchased 35 boxes. I did them in transactions of five, so as to use three double coupons with each set. So...all-in-all I paid a whopping $4.20 for THIRTY FIVE boxes of granola bars!!! 35 boxes equals 350 bars. $4.20 divided by 350 equals $.01/bar! That's $.16/bar less than the STORE BRAND. Ok, so the same 350 bars at Walmart would have cost me $58.33! I saved $54.13 over purchasing the store brand. The same 350 Quaker bars at Walmart with the same coupons, would have cost me $59.85. 

If you planned really well, you could actually wind up scoring FREE bars by using a different coupon combination, but I was satisfied enough with $4.20 for 35 boxes of granola bars. :) 

Recap: Some of the amounts you save may not seem to be that significant, but when you add all those amounts up, it becomes HUGE savings. If you were to buy just the above listed items in the specified quantities, you would save $100.31 on your grocery bill by purchasing NAME BRAND items at Albertsons and matching sales with coupons over purchasing the same quantity of STORE BRAND items at Walmart. 

Wow...what a great sale! I'm now stocked up on granola bars, a few of my family's favorite cereals, pancake mix, syrup, and oatmeal. I won't have to buy them again until they're at a price I CHOOSE and am happy to pay. :) Time for a rest. Good thing this week's Albertsons sale isn't too exciting...

Are you ready to start learning how to save your family a ton of money by matching coupons with sales? YOU can do it, too...I PROMISE! Click HERE to get started.! How do I get so many coupons?? Read all about why I get multiple newspaper subscriptions HERE.