And the Safeway contest winner is…

Whew – not only did I get behind due to my grandma’s funeral this weekend, but it took a long time to figure out who the winner of the Safeway savings contest was!

Determining the winner was more complicated than just see who saved the most money on the receipt – some used catalinas they’d earned on previous weeks to pay for this past week’s purchases, so I had to factor that into the overall percentage.  Several people actually saved right at 100% or above!

So, who’s the winner?  Samantha F., who actually went home from Safeway with them giving her 82¢!  She received 82¢ back at checkout and saved $50.60 – a savings of 102%!  She used a $10 frozen foods catalina to pay for part of her purchase, but also earned another one on her order.  Here’s what she got:

Congrats, Samantha!  You’ll be receiving a $25 Diapers.com gift code as well as a $25 gift code to [amazon.com]!

Here are some honorable mentions:

Julie was able to spend no money out of pocket by using catalinas she’d earned on previous weeks and a $30 gift card she’d earned by transferring a prescription to the Safeway pharmacy.

And just in case you think that bargains can only be had on junk food like cereal, look at Cindy’s purchase.  She bought spinach, oranges, broccoli stir fry, carrots, mushrooms, cheese, and deli meat, in addition to cereal and Cheetos, and still saved 78%!  Nice work, Cindy.

I’ll be sending Cindy and Julie $5 [amazon.com] gift cards as an honorable mention prize.

Several readers who also blog submitted entries, too – be sure to check out their savings trips from Safeway.  Some of them were super-duper close to being the winner!

Laura from Ten Things Farm
Traci from My Price Is Right
Jen from This Frugal Life

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest!