I have a special shopping trip to report today – because my whole trip was paid for by Johnson & Johnson. You see, I was selected to be a J&J Cause Party hostess, which means that on Saturday I will be hosting a charity fundraiser in my home to benefit one of my favorite causes. Johnson & Johnson are providing all the party supplies – they’ve sent me party favors for all the guests and a $300 stipend. $100 of this will be donated to charity, and the other $200 is to be used to purchase food for the party.
The charity that I have chosen is LifeStraw, a personal water purification device that makes filthy water drinkable. Each guest is being asked to bring $6.50, which is the cost to deliver one LifeStraw into the hands of an African child. The point of the cause party is to show that a little bit can make a big difference – so this program is right up my alley!
Yesterday night I headed over to Fred Meyer to pick up a few things for the party. I normally prefer to make most of my own food for gatherings, but since I’m short on time this week and will have a lot of people attending, I decided to keep it simple and stick to pre-packaged and easy to prepare foods. This is just a small portion of what we’ll be having – I’ll be doing the rest of the shopping today, so that the perishable items will be fresh for the party.
Total: $61.70 – all paid for by Johnson & Johnson, and I still have $138.30 left to buy the rest of the party food with.
Total before store coupons & bag credit: $72.33
The hard drive just went out on my main computer, so I can’t currently use my scanner – I will upload the receipt as soon as my system is back up and running!
Got:
1 package of paper plates (115 total) – price: $4.99
2 packages of hot dog buns – your first two are .39 cents each, and each additional after that is .89, so I figured I’d split it up between trips and buy a few more next time. Total cost: .78 cents
2 packages of hamburger buns – same price as above. Total cost: .78 cents
2 value packs of chips (44 bags altogether) – $5.99 each. Notice how I picked the package that contains $50 worth of coupons! Total cost: $11.98
1 package of foam cups (51 total) – price: $1.49
1 package of napkins (250 total) – price: $2.39
6 boxes of soda (72 cans total) – originally priced at $2.50 each, used a “6 for $10” coupon from the Fred Meyer sales flier to bring the price down to roughly $1.67 each, plus .60 cents for the bottle deposit. Total cost: $13.60
4.03 lbs of chicken drumsticks – price: $3.99
4.14 lbs of chicken drumsticks – price: $4.10
3.61 lbs of chicken drumsticks – price: $3.57
4.85 lbs of chicken thighs – price: $2.57. Unfortunately, the package smelled a little funny when I got it home (and I haven’t opened it) – I don’t know for sure if it’s “off”, but there’s no way I’m cooking anything even slightly dodgy. I have no idea if I’ll be able to return it, but if not, I’ll just have to call it a loss.
4 lbs of butter – originally priced at $2.39 each, used a coupon from the Fred Meyer sales flier to bring the price down to $1.25. Total cost: $5.00
2 half-gallons of milk – originally priced at $1.59 each, used a coupon from the Fred Meyer sales flier to bring the price down to .88 cents. Total cost: $1.76
5 packages of hot dogs (40 hot dogs total) – .99 cents each, total cost: $4.95
