My Couponing Adventure

I think I should really call this post "My Almost Couponing Adventure." 

 My reason? Because I think I used a grand total of 4 coupons today. I know some of you out there probably use 50 coupons- and kudos to you! I think that many would make me crazy and I would just pay the extra money so I wouldn't have to deal with the many slips of paper running around my purse.

I am super excited tonight though!!! We went to Albertson's and King Soopers and spent right around $180 for about $280 in groceries! A lot of that was because of various sales at both stores- sales that we took advantage of a lot! We would have saved about another $10 had my husband not left his military ID at home... Oh well. Just let it go, Sarah, let it go... 

And of course we did use a few coupons at King Soopers. They tend to give us coupons that say, "Save $3 off your next shopping trip" and I love them for it! We shop there so much it almost feels like an obligation for them to give us some sort of discount... :)

I've noticed from websites and coupons in the mail and coupons in the stores that they are mainly for name brand items (or for items that I don't even buy). Tonight I even tried to use a coupon for Special K cereal- get $1 off if you get 2 boxes (side note- it had a note on the coupon saying "do not double"). Well I looked at the Special K prices and they were about $3.50 a box. So times that by two and minus a dollar and I would pay $6 for the cereal. Well I also noticed that over to the side the store brand of the exact same cereal was going for $2.50 a box or so. So say I get 2 boxes of that (which I did by the way) I would be paying $5 and that's without the coupon! Yeah the box isn't as pretty or colorful and is probably harder to open, and the taste may be slightly different- but hey, it kept me from having to carry yet another coupon around in my purse that I'd have to fish out when checking out. Not to mention it saved me an extra dollar! And that's just one example- don't even get me started on the frozen veggies... 

I hear the stories of people going to the store and leaving with $500 worth of groceries for only $50 (or something like that anyway). I really want to know how they do it. Do they buy generic products like me? Or do they use a gazillion coupons for name brand items? If so, how do they keep their sanity with all those coupons? I want details people- if you are one of those extreme couponers, then please comment or let me know in some way, shape, or form how you manage to do that. I'm highly curious!