The Penny Experiment

Have you heard about the Penny Experiment?

Last November, Jeffrey Strain found a penny laying on the ground and started wondering...what is the real value of a penny? And, could he turn it into $1,000,000 worth of food to donate to local food banks?

He put the call out for coupon bloggers to buy as much food as they can for as little as possible, and to date, $72.97 has been spent purchasing $716.86 worth of food that has been donated!

Here is my first donation:

This food bank booty was collected in a few days from 4 different area stores, Kmart, Fred Meyer and Albertsons. The receipt scans suck but if you click on it you will be able to see the transactions clearly.


At Kmart: 3 boxes of Post Raisin Bran Cereal regularly priced at $3.99 per box, on sale for $2.00 per box.

Pre-coupon total = $6.00

Minus:$2.00 off any one printable manufacturers coupon x 3

Coupon total = $6.00

Total cash spent = $0.00

At Fred Meyer: 5 cans of Bumble Bee Tuna, regularly priced at .59 cents per can.

Pre coupon total = $2.95

Minus: Fred Meyer store coupon for 4 cans for $1.00, coupon value = $1.36

and

$1.00/5 printable manufacturers coupon

Coupon total = $2.36

Money spent = .59 cents

Albertsons: (2 trips) 5 boxes of Quaker Instant Oatmeal, 4 boxes of Quaker Granola Bars and 1 box of Quaker Oatmeal Pancake Mix. (I kept 2 boxes of the Instant Oatmeal and 1 box of the granola bars, but the remaining items were donated to the food bank.)

Pre coupon total = $38.90

Minus:

$1.00 off any Quaker Instant Oatmeal Manufacturers coupons x 5 = $5.00

$1.00/2 Quaker Granola Bars manufacturers coupons x 2 = $2.00

$1.00 off Quaker Oatmeal Pancake Mix x 1 = $1.00

Albertsons "Twice the Value" store coupons @ $1.00 each x2 = $2.00

Total coupons = $10.00

Subtotal = $28.90

Minus:

Albertsons Preferred Shopper Savings of $28.90

Total money spent = $0.00

So, by combining manufacturers coupons with sale items and store savings, I got 8 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of granola bars, 5 cans of tuna and 1 box of pancake mix for what it costs to buy 1 can of tuna at regular price! And, I was able to donate $42.16 retail value worth of food to The Second Harvest Food Bank, something I am feeling really good about :)

Are you interested in seeing how the Penny Experiment works? Click here to find out more!