Wednesday Weekly Shopping: What's my real savings?

I invite you to link up to your best grocery deals below, to inspire others to save more! 
 
Each week here at Wednesday Weekly Shopping, I post what I've purchased at grocery and drug stores and the cost of the items.  Then I say how much I've saved.  But is this really accurate?

In actuality, I haven't saved all that much - see my What's Your Real Savings? post.  For name-brand items I've bought on sale and/or used coupons for, I'm comparing to the retail price of the groceries.  Most of the time, I wouldn't ever pay that price.  If I needed the item, I'd most likely buy a generic brand of the item at a regular low prices store (ALDI or Walmart, generally).  And some items, like the Gas-X in this Publix trip, I wouldn't buy at all.  So counting the savings there isn't fair or accurate. 

So I've created a new column in my shopping spreadsheet called "Real Savings."  There, I put the difference between the price I paid and the price for a similar item at ALDI or Walmart.  In some cases, I know the prices (check my ALDI price list, which needs updating, or the ALDI price comparison list at The ALDI Spot); other times, I am approximating the cost.  I'm still working out how to include savings from ECBs and RR, as well as coupons like $5 off $30 or more, into the real savings.  So please bear with me!

So this week, even though my original calculations say I saved almost $123, in reality I saved about $40.  Still a good savings in my book!

Here's what I got this week (click on the link below the picture for more details about the trip):

Publix: Spent $1.11

ALDI: Spent $34.07

Produce store: Spent $10.93

Walgreens: Spent $6.88, received $6 RRs

CVS: Spent $13.97, received $7.77 ECBs

Overall, this week I spent $73.34 for items which retail for $196.24, or a 63% savings.  (But don't compare percentages! Please!)  My real savings was $39.55.

For the year (18 weeks), I've spent $1290.20 for items which retail for $2547.63, and saved $1257.43, or a 49% savings. That's an average of $71.68 spent each week for a family of five (husband, wife, and daughters ages 13, 10, and 6).

See all my shopping here.

How did your shopping go this week? What bargains did you get? Please leave a link to your blog post about your weekly shopping. The aim is not to brag, but to inspire!  Please link up directly to your post, not to the blog itself. I'd appreciate it if you put a link to Wednesday Weekly Shopping in your post as well. If you don't have a blog, please leave a comment!


For more great shopping deals and trips, please check out the bloggers listed on the left sidebar under Shopping Deals Linkups. There are lots of great ideas on each blog and I'm sure you'll find inspiration for you to save even more!