My Save A Lot Grocery Trip

Do you have a local Save A Lot grocery store? Have you ever been shopping there?

We don't have a Save A Lot here in town but my closest one is about 20 minutes away. When I was contacted by a representative at Save A Lot and asked if I would like to receive a gift card to check out the store I was happy to accept! I love being offered the chance to try something new as I always learn new and exciting things from these experiences! (Erin...you're the best!) They sent me a $15 gift card, a huge re-usable grocery bag, and a box of their store brand brownies!

My Shopping Experience:

I decided that I would take a trip to the store to check it out prior to receiving the gift card. I was able to meet a wonderful store manager (James) who was extremely welcoming to the idea of me being there as a new shopper.

I was also able to meet another customer who took the time to tell me how much he loved shopping at Save A Lot. This gentleman actually drove 30 minutes once per week to shop there! He said that their prices couldn't be beat and he loved the simplistic shopping environment! He gave great arguments that I couldn't deny! In his shopping cart he had a huge can of coffee that was only $4. The name brand version would've easily cost more than $10! "Quite a savings" he said as he bid me farewell!

I walked each aisle taking notes on prices and I will have to say that I was really impressed with the overall pricing at the store. Save A Lot prides itself on being able to have prices up to 40% lower than most other stores due to it's low overhead expenses. This is a store that is pretty cut and dry...no fancy shelving or displays, minimal choices (1 or 2 of the same type of product), popular meat cuts, and popular produce items. You can read more about the stores history here and how they keep things so cheap here!

What I planned to do!

I have to tell you that I was quite impressed. Being an extreme coupon user (meaning that I mainly only buy what is free or close to it each week) I accepted the challenge of seeing just exactly what I could do with $15 in hand and a store that carries mostly store brand items.

At first I thought about using the money to buy things that I wanted to stock up on such as their $.49 canned veggies or their $.99 Fresh Express Lettuce bags (both a great price!) but I wanted to get a little bit more creative.

How far could I actually stretch $15? I know how much $15 usually buy me when I use a ton of coupons in a strategic shopping trip but I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out at a store that had minimal name brand products!

I was able to buy 4 dinners with $15 that would feed a family of 4...YES I said feed 4 meals to a family of 4 on $15!


This is what I bought...

1 Bag of Chicken Leg Quarters @ $5.90
2 bags of shredded cheese @ $2.29 each
1 stock of celery @ $1.99
1 yellow onion @ $.30
1 can of sliced carrots @ $.59
1 pack of egg noodles @ $.99
1 pack of flour tortillas @ $1.39
1 16oz sour cream @ $1.19
1 box of Spanish Rice @ $.69
1 bottle of BBQ @ $1.39
1 taco dinner kit @ $1.79
Total: $20.80

Coupons Used:
$5 off of $20 here
$1 off of 2 bags of Shredded Cheese here
Total Out-Of-Pocket: $.10 ( I went over my $15 gift card budget by $.10 due to tax).

Here are the meals that I was able to make out of the items I purchased...

Chicken N' Dumplins (2 1/2 cups of shredded chicken, 5 cups of broth)
Chicken Noodle Soup (2 1/2 cups of shredded chicken, 10 cups of broth)
Chicken Tacos with a side of rice (just by following the directions on the box) (1 cup of shredded chicken)
BBQ Chicken Pizza (2 1/2 cups of shredded chicken)(just add chicken BBQ Sauce and fresh diced or sliced onion!)

All of these meals can be made at the same time. I took the entire bag of chicken leg quarters and boiled them. Once I pulled the chicken from the bones I had about 9 cups of shredded chicken and split it between the meals (as shown next to each listing).

I also saved all of the chicken broth to re-use in the recipes.

Now I know that most of you wouldn't want to have chicken 4 nights in a row but you can throw other meals in with these chicken dinners. The soup, chicken taco mix, and the pizza freezes well, and the dumplins would need to be eaten the same day or the next.

Overall, I was very impressed with Save A Lots prices, simplistic atmosphere, and friendly workers. Since the store is so far away I cannot warrant a weekly trip but I will definitely make a trip about once every 2 or 3 months to stock up on things like the $.49 canned goods (Walmart cannot even beat this price!), dried spices such as coarse black pepper and garlic which are a fraction of the cost elsewhere, and many other great finds!

A big thanks goes out to Save A Lot for including me on this great opportunity to try something new!


Save A Lot Current Promotions, Deals, & Coupons:

• Sign up for the $5 off of your purchase of $20 or more coupon here!
• Print out coupons to take into the store here!
• Sign up to receive $15 worth of coupons from P&G here!
• You can also check out the great holiday meal that they have for less than $15 here!

Be sure to leave us a comment if you would like to share anything about your local Save A Lot store! Would you agree that there are many items in the store that no other store can beat the prices on? What kind of deals have you found lately there? How do you rate the taste of their store brand products? I'd love to hear from you!