Savings at the grocery store

For the last several months I have been going to Costco to get the majority of our groceries.  I need to go about once a month to get the majority of the  groceries that we will need for the month.  Of course, I usually need to go to the grocery store a couple of times in that month to replenish produce and dairy.  It is a system that I like, it saves me time and money. Unfortunately, this month I will not be able to make it Costco.  Our local Costco is not all that local.  It is about a 45 minute drive.  With the schedules that we have had the last few weeks, we just don't have the few hours required to make such a pilgrimage.

With that in mind this week, I scoured the sale ad from our local grocery store for bargains and sale items that I had a coupon for.  I had great success this week.  This was a week that had several buy one get one free bargains in addition to healthy options on sale.  When I added my coupons to these deals, I saved a lot of money.  Before sales and coupons were applied my bill was $288.65.  After the sales and coupons were applied, by final bill was $194.11.  

I know that sounds high, very high in fact.  But, I have 3 kids.  One of those kids being an 11 year old boy who is a bottomless pit.  My daughter who is 10 is a vegetarian, so I need to pick protein rich options for her.  The food I bought today, when added to what I already have in the freezer and pantry will easily last me 2 weeks (with the exception of the bananas that I will need to replenish several times).

If anyone has pointers on how to bring this bill down even farther, let me know.  I am always open to more ideas to help in the ongoing journey with frugality.