I LOVE Cereal

Whenever I post something really important, I try not to post something for awhile to make sure that the most important thing stays on the top of the page. Hannah getting engaged is pretty darn important and while I know it deserves to be on the top of the page for quite a bit longer, I can't help but to post something new.

Turns out, I have a little thing for cereal. Actually that is a lie! I've had a thing for cereal for as long as I've ate solid foods :) I'd wake up and nearly cry for a bowl of cereal. Ask my mom or aunt Wayla to demonstrate it in their best MaryBeth impression. It's quite humorous. It still continues to this day. I wake up, go to the bathroom, and get myself some cereal. We joke at our house and in my family how easy Marcel has it to make me breakfast in bed. All I want is a big bowl of cereal! I'm always grateful when he makes me something else, like this week when I got served French Toast (it will never be pancakes unless that's what I crave while I'm pregnant, because that it a deal we've made...that's a whole different story) but I would much rather eat cereal!

Marcel and I were at Albertson's last week sometime buying Kellogg's cereal (Apple Jacks & Fruit Loops) on a super good deal that I can't remember right now, and the manager saw our cart loaded with cereal and said, "Next Wednesday, all POST cereal on sale for $0.78." Being a new couponer I knew that was a deal that would be CRAZY so I asked him what time they open and how much they were getting in. They open at 6 and they ordered over 40 pallets of cereal. It was my plan all week to be there at 6am to try to beat a lot of the crowd who can't shop much until they get their kids dropped off to school (I am not embarrased to be in the couponing community full of stay at home moms, while right now my family is just me and Marcel...I think of it as great practice for when we have a bigger family to provide for on just a teacher's salary!) But a change of events, mainly our fasting for church, meant I wasn't going until I ate for the day (Another post about fasting later). That didn't happen either because I was just sitting at the table watching the clock, waiting for lunch time. While our pastor warned us against grocery shopping while you are fasting, Marcel and I decided at least it would get me out of the house. Plus we were only going for cereal, it's not like we were going to make any impulse buys out of our starvation.

Turns out the deal went like this

Box of cereal = $1.59

Buy 4, receive $3.00 catalina for your next purchase

Buy 5+, receive $4.00 catalina for your next purchase

I also had $13.00 in catalinas from other deals that helped to pay for a lot of the cereal.

So we bought 30 boxes, in 6 transactions, always using 1 catalina as part of our payment and received a new catalina after paying each time!

We saved $132.86, spent $9.01 and still have $10 in catalinas to use again, so we really made $0.99 shopping for my absolute favorite food in the whole entire world. Couponers strive for money MAKING transactions. While I've gotten really close before, this was my first actual money making day of grocery shopping.

What the store looked like last night

Wish everyday was cereal day at the store!
picture credit: athriftymom.com

what we got for $9.01

only got the fruity and cupcake pebbles to use for Rice-Krispy treats. Are they still called that if you don't use Rice Krispies?

Just part of our stockpile of cereal

10 more boxes on a shelf you can't see!

We have 42 unopened boxes of cereal, most of which doesn't expire until February 2011, but I have no doubt in my mind that this will be gone way before then.