Rainbow Double Daze

I tried something new today.  I went to Rainbow Foods for their coupon double day.  Typically at Rainbow, on Wednesdays (and sometimes Saturdays), you can double up to 5 coupons with a $25 purchase.  Although intriguing, 5 doubled coupons didn't seem like enough to get me to rearrange my Wednesday schedule.  But, today, they were willing to double 10 coupons.  You can double any coupon $1 and under.  I had plenty of $1 coupons so I wrote down my plan and set forth.

I did two transactions.  16 items in both transactions.  I spent $24 in transaction #1 and saved $27.  I spent $24 in transaction #2 and saved $37.34.  However, with the coupons I had, my doubled coupons only saved me $13.80 and $22.99, respectively.  The other "savings" reported on my receipt were from things being on sale. 

Although I think those are great numbers, I'm not sold on this process yet.  We typically do our grocery shopping at Walmart for most everything and Super Target or Cub for produce.  And Rainbow, that store is just plain expensive.  Even with a doubled coupon, I ended up paying more for some items than I would at Walmart without a doubled coupon.

Ex:
Ritze Crackers at Rainbow = $3.46
$1 Coupon doubled = -$2
Total = $1.46

Ritz Crackers at Walmart = $2
$1 Coupon (no double) = -$1
Total = $1

Ex2:
Skippy Natural @ Rainbow = 2.29
Total after doubled coupon = $1.59

Skippy Natural @ Walmart = $1.82
Total after coupon = $1.47

I have more examples, but that's enough.  It's not to say I didn't score some good deals (free coffee mate, tuna, and yogurt).  I think if I shopped at Rainbow enough to know what was a good deal there and what was overpriced there, and then used my coupons accordingly, I could make this system work.  But, in the meantime, I think I might remain loyal to good ol' Wally World.