I wanted to make a Lemon Meringue Pie, but I was low on a few baking supplies, so I made a quick trip to Safeway:

Total spent: $4.99
Total before coupons: $8.52
View receipt

Got:

1 bottle of Smart Balance cooking oil – One sale for $3.45, used a $1/1 coupon from the 11/2 Red Plum newspaper inserts.
1 dozen cage free eggs – $3.29. I could have gotten a much lower price on eggs, but I prefer to buy the cage free variety when I can.
2 trial sized boxes of Tide – .89 each, used two .50/1 coupons from the 11/2 Proctor & Gamble newspaper inserts; free plus .11 cents of overage after doubles.

The pie crust recipe that I always make uses cooking oil instead of butter. I frequently get comments on how flaky and good my pie crusts are, and when I tell people the recipe, they always seem shocked that it uses oil. I find it easier than making a crust with butter, and it’s also cost effective, so I thought I would share the recipe here:

Oil Pastry

Recipe from Betty Crocker’s Cook Book – makes an 8 or 9 inch one-crust pie

Ingredients:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (I always omit this)
1/3 cup salad oil
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

Measure flour and salt into bowl. Add oil; mix until particles are the size of small peas. Sprinkle in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until flour is moistened and dough almost cleans side of bowl. (If dough seems dry, 1 to 2 tablespoons oil can be added. Do not add water.) Gather dough together; press firmly into ball. Shape dough into flattened round and roll out.

As I was getting ready for dinner on Tuesday night, I decided on a whim to pick up some beer to serve with it. While I was at the store, I also found some tea on clearance:

Total spent: $6.29
Total before coupons: $8.27

View receipt

Got:

1 6-pack of beer – I picked this kind just because it’s so festive! I love holiday-themed groceries.
2 boxes of Celestial Seasonings tea – on clearance for .99 cents, used two $1/1 coupons from the 10/5 Smart Source newspaper inserts. They were both adjusted down to .99 cents,
although the store will still be reimbursed for the full $1 value of the coupon. And this time they wouldn’t double the coupons – I’ve spoken to managers at Safeway before who said it is perfectly legitimate to get overage from doubling a coupon such as this, so long as you are not getting cash back. There doesn’t seem to be any official Safeway corporate coupon policy; it seems to generally be left up to each store to decide their own rules, and everyone seems to have different policies. So, I missed out on a little overage, but oh well!

Here’s what we had for dinner:

BBQ chicken wings and garlic roasted potatoes.