I went shopping today with my money-maker coupons. (KY) For each one I get about $1 in overage to spend on groceries. I try to use this overage mostly on items I don't have coupons for, so meat is the item I tend to stock up on with these.
I had $40 in coupon overage to use, so I got just about $40 worth of groceries. I used no other coupons save for one $.50 coupon that was on the package of chicken. I have to say, I was amazed at how little $4o buys when you are not using coupons or at least shopping only the sales items. Though some of this meat was priced competitively, I could have gotten it somewhere else for less if I shopped the sales. However, since it would be essentially free here, I was willing to "spend" more per pound. I ended up with 18.55 lbs of meat including a beef roast, thin sliced pork chops, sausage, hot dogs, chicken breasts, and one whole chicken. I also got 2.5 lbs of cheese and 18 cans of cat food. Since this store charges 5% surcharge on everything, I ended up paying $3.37. (The overage actually took off some of the surcharge too- it was $5.90)
In light of how little I got with my "free" $40, I can't imagine how high my food bill would be if I just shopped "normally".